At the beginning of his cricketing test careeer in the mid Seventies, Graham Gooch was not an opening batsman. He came in a couple of wickets down at 4 or 5 with responsibiliries for holding the middle order together . England, as England often does, were shaking. Gooch invariably fumbled around for fifteen minutes, flashing at the ball outside the offstump nervously before edging to the slips. Heading back to to the pavilion head down. Caught and despatched in single figures. He was Essex boy. In white. And leg pads.This is little remembered now. Graham Gooch is a cricketing legend. But it's how I think of him. I used to sit in front of the TV set watching The Ashes with my Dad. Sport was so exciting when I was young. Now I don't bother much. I haven't sat and watched Test Cricket for years.Anyway I digress. We're talking Lucy Gooch not Graham here .I imagine they are not related.I am sitting  on my sofa litening to Lucy's latest album Desert Window. It has an arresting cover and the album itself is equally strikking. 'Spectral' it says on the stickers on the record and when you listen to the record you realise the description applies. Like much music these days it seems to arrive in the slipstream of Kate Bush. It gasps and sighs in wonder.It's rather magnificent really In cricketing terms it carries its bat back to the pavilion aloft having despatched a winning boundary. Graham would be proud.

 At the beginning of his cricketing test careeer in the mid Seventies, Graham Gooch was not an opening batsman. He came in a couple of wickets down at 4 or 5 with responsibiliries for holding the middle order together . England, as Englsnd often does, were shaking. Gooch invariably fumbled around fir fifteen minutes, flashing at the ball outside the offstump before edging to the slips. Heading back to to the pavilion head down. Caught at slip in single figures. He was Essex boy. In white. And leg pads.This is little remembered now. Graham Gooch is a cricketing legend. But it's how I think of him. I used to sit in front of the TV set watching The Ashes with my Dad. Sport was so exciting when I was young. Now I don't bother much. I haven't sat and watched Test Cricket for years.Anyway I digress. We're talking Lucy Gooch not Graham here . I imagine they are not related.I am sitting  on my sofa litening to Lucy's latest album Desert Window. It has an arresting cover and the album iyself is equally strikking. Spectral it says on the stickers on the record and when you listen to the record you realise the description applies. Like much music these days it seems to arrive in the slipstream of Kate Bush. It gasps and sighs in wonder. In cricketing terms it carries its bat having despatched a winning boundary. Graham would be proud. 

Sanjay Manjrekar discusses Virat Kohli's recent struggles against deliveries outside off-stump, leading to his dismissal for seven runs in the pink-ball Test. Kohli’s diminishing Test average and Indi...