Cricket: Gooch's articulate deeds from the heart; NATWEST TROPHY FINAL: Essex v Lancashire at Lord's today

Derek Pringle recounts an Essex legend's methods of leadership and play that have stood the test of father time;

He will be there earlier than most this morning, just to run an eye over the old place before the rival hordes arrive and to ensure his bat and feet are moving as he wants them. Once satisfied, he will join his team-mates for fielding practice before returning to his usual changing place by the far window of the Visitors' dressing-room, where, with a cup of tea for company, he will quietly visualise the day ahead.

The Essex Man may have disappeared, but Graham Gooch is as ambitious as he ever was, leaving little to chance, particularly where his beloved Essex are concerned. His meticulous preparation is legendary and remains uncompromised despite the "will he or won't he" rumours that persist over his impending retirement.

At 43, he is not as spry as he once was, but with appetite for runs and batsmanship undimmed he will see today's NatWest final as another opportunity to add to a cabinet already bulging with cricket trophies. If there is a tear it will be blinked away, his emotions held well in check by an impassive moustache that still looks as if it had been created by a giant bat crash-landed into Mount Rushmore. No sopping Dickie Bird hanky needed here should the full house see fit to give him a standing ovation.

Lord's has always been a special place for Gooch. Ever since Essex won their first trophy there - the 1979 B&H final, a match Gooch dominated with a brilliant 120 - it has seen fit to provide the milestones of a lengthy career. It is a career that has seen him cast first as villain, for his part in the 1982 "rebel" tour to South Africa, and then as national treasure as the nation took his steadfast honesty to their hearts.

He also scored his first Test century there in 1980 against Holding, Croft, Garner and Roberts, when they cowed the Test playing world with their remorseless pace. It was an innings capped only by his monolithic 333 against India a decade later, the highest score at cricket's esteemed HQ. With 2,015 of his 8,900 Test runs scored under Father Time's impartial gaze, Gooch, more than most, deserves one last favour.

Not that he would want it. Gooch is a man driven to greatness by minimising the chance element in his game. Ever since the Aussies started playing us for mugs, he has been a man of pride and mission, adopting Allan Border's epithet: "If you fail to prepare; you prepare to fail."

Taken at its most literal, it turned Gooch into an avuncular cyclops who, in his tireless quest to be the best, has sometimes failed to see the rest.It is a failing he now admits, and one he will have to keep in remission if coaching is to be the next vocation he turns his rational mind and method towards. He is certainly no ogre, as those with cosy outlook and blunt axes have sometimes claimed. Even when angry, he barely raises so much as a squeak, preferring to fix those who have displeased with a blue-eyed stare.

There is no bat throwing or hissing of shibboleths in the dressing-room either, the steam outlet preferred by many after a poor decision. Simply a deep sigh, followed by the calm, orderly removal and replacement of equipment back into his cricket case. He is neater than Bill Frindall's scorebook and 10 times more interesting, as those he has allowed to get to know him will attest.

He has had his trials on and off the field, and there was plenty of sighing in 1989 when Terry Alderman's outswing kept exposing his flawed habit of planting, then playing around, his front pad. Catharsis was needed and it came in the unexpected form of the England captaincy, which he was given after David Gower's sacking and the defection of half the England team to South Africa.

A rebel who had been seduced by the illicit krugerrand himself in 1982 - for which he received a three-year ban - Gooch was saddled with an inexperienced team who were given no hope of drawing a single Test against a mighty West Indies team, at their apogee as a world cricketing power. In fact England almost drew the series, winning the first Test in Jamaica, and being cruelly denied in the third, after rain and the cynical go-slow tactics of their opponents thwarted them.

Bolstered by this near-miss against the best team in the world, the Gooch blueprint of working hard and practising towards a plan became the norm. A punishing routine, it took little heed of individual needs as effort superceded ability in a well-intentioned bid to bring England success.

It also coincided with the rationalisation of Gooch's own game as a new mental rigour was ushered in to quell the flamboyant strokeplay of his earlier years - a change, which although compromising the "thrill factor", elevated his Test average from an indifferent 37 to a respectable 42.58.

Not unnaturally considering the improvement in his own game, Gooch expected those under him to adopt his vision. His distrust of those forever looking for short cuts saw him form a close alliance with Micky Stewart, who shared his puritanical work ethic. It was an ethic which brought him into conflict with David Gower, whose looser philosophy did not embrace the zeal of the newly converted.

In truth, Gower infuriated Gooch, who felt the left-hander's insouciance not only undermined his authority but his own sublime talent as well - a situation that was never amicably resolved and which Gooch considers to be one of the abiding failures of his career.

Since relinquishing the captaincy of county and country, Gooch has settled into something resembling a relaxed dotage. He is revered, but not idolised, being too human for that despite the constant doses of Van Morrison he feeds his ears. Occasionally known as "Pop", the paternal respect vanishes the instant he applies the spray and brush routine needed to present his impressive tonsure before every fielding session.

Always an intensely private man, he now apparently dispenses advice and wisdom freely about the Essex dressing-room. That is a far cry from shy teenager who first sat there 25 years earlier and was asked by Keith Fletcher whether or not "it" spoke. As it happens, "it" does, even if the more potent statements have been made by the three-odd pounds of timber swinging cleanly from that stand-and-deliver stance of his.

It is a language both he and his supporters will miss. Few players in history have been able to claim the current Gooch double of most runs for club and country, and it is doubtful that any other county will ever get the unconditional commitment Gooch has given Essex.

And still it continues, with his 127th first-class century, scored against Warwickshire two days ago, moving Gooch into the all-time top 10, just above the hirsute WG Grace. It would, for many, be a fitting time to bow out. For Gooch, though, there is the pressing matter of today's NatWest final, as well as this season's Championship to consider. As long as there is petrol in the tank, and more glory for Essex, the future can hang.