England's shy outsider, sound judge, cool leader and keeper of a little black book

Interview Duncan Fletcher: The World Cup will be a watershed for the retiring master technician. Stephen Brenkley meets a determined players' man

After Michael Vaughan had plundered the Australian attack for the umpteenth time he was asked about his method, just in case there might be anything in it for lesser mortals. It took him about two sentences before he mentioned Duncan Fletcher.

This was not the start of a long list in which England's new great batsman was thanking everyone with whom he had come into contact, like some disingenuous Oscar winner. That is not Vaughan's way. He was simply and honestly paying tribute to a coach who had patiently and painstakingly guided him along the path to realising his potential.

"He has been a great help," Vaughan said. "All that's happening now is benefiting from the work I have done with him." He went into some important technical guff about the stance and trigger movements (stillness, an initial slight forward movement before going back and across) and then enjoyed the moment.

He was not the first player to recognise what Fletcher had given to his game, although he may be the most prodigious. Nor is it only Englishmen. Speak to Jacques Kallis, of South Africa, the most formidable all-rounder in the world, and he will relate what Fletcher did for him in the early years. They are not bad players to have on your coaching CV, Vaughan and Kallis. One would do for most men's lifetimes.

This will not prevent the World Cup being a watershed for Fletcher. Few expect England to do well – that might even extend to the players – but they must do less abjectly than in the previous two tournaments. Qualifying for the second stage would help. Otherwise, the coach will find it a long way back despite having 18 months of an extended contract to run. You cannot forever hide behind inexperience and the difficulty of gelling in the late middle order. He picked the team.

"I never make predictions," he said. "But the England side have got some potential. If they come to the party on the day they can surprise a few people. That's what I think we'll do, surprise a few people."

Fletcher has a quality that sets apart all good coaches. He can watch not only the whole game as it unfolds but also espy the minutiae of individual procedure. It is fascinating to observe him in England's nets.

Sometimes he might appear to be detached, watching but distantly so. Suddenly, he will walk down to the batsman and begin an earnest conversation. He will take up the stance and put his left arm and elbow high as if it had a bat on the end of it and he will show the batsman how he is moving and how he might like to move.

Fletcher spots things. He is big on technique, although he tends not to have any desire to discuss it with outsiders. Three recent examples concern the three disciplines of the game. Marcus Trescothick had a mediocre Ashes because he kept getting caught at slip, and Fletcher said there were some slight amendments the pair were working on. Slight but perfectly formed.

Stephen Harmison had, possibly has, a tendency to bowl one-day wides. Fletcher grasped quickly that the mental block led to the technical flaw and not the other way round. And then there was Vaughan, who had revealed himself as a catching butterfingers by taking not a single catch during the Ashes and dropping plenty. It was nothing to do with his level of concentration, said Fletcher tetchily, responding to an interrogator, it was a technical thing. Some people might have thought you could either catch or you could not.

The word that is most often used to describe Duncan Fletcher is "taciturn". It is not quite accurate. Engage him in conversation and you can hardly shut him up. He has a boyish sense of humour. But he is taciturn in that he reveals so little. He will say that this is because of the poverty of the questions he is asked and the triviality of the information that is being sought. But he adamantly refused to comment on England's World Cup match in Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, when it was an obviously legitimate inquiry. Only after much pressing did he say: "I'm not going to speak about Zimbabwe. When the World Cup is over I will talk. You will find out and understand me, I'm sure you will."

Generally he despairs at the questions he is asked. "It's always the same stuff," he said. "I'm asked why England are finding it hard and I say the same thing. There's too much county cricket. Wear and tear has got to take its toll. Australia are moaning like hell but they had a long break last June and July. If you go back 18 months, I've stuck to one thing only. I've never said that county cricket is poor, but that there's too much, which could lead to a lowering of standards."

This does not at first appear to square well with Fletcher's other oft-repeated dictum, that England do not play enough one-day international cricket. His point is that certain skills ought to have been developed before players reach that level (in England's case they frequently have not been), but players still need the experience of dealing with match situations.

Fletcher was appointed as England coach in the summer of 1999 but did not take over until the winter tour of South Africa. He came with top credentials: with him as coach, Western Province had won the Castle Cup and Glamorgan the County Championship. Unquestionably, he has made a difference to England, but the record is hardly splendid. England have played 43 Test matches under Fletcher, won 15 and lost 16, although eight of the defeats have been against Australia. That apart, this is roughly comparable to their efforts over the previous 120 years, though series wins in Pakistan and Sri Lanka were stirring accomplishments. In one-day cricket, England have played 65, won 28 and lost 35, which is a bit worse than their record down the years.

Fletcher's relationship with Nasser Hussain has been crucial. One is quiet, placid, the other excitable, passionate. In Australia, Hussain was drained, and the worse it became, the more he demanded of his players. At all times, Fletcher showed the sort of excitement the rest of us show when we are sitting on a bus. But he has been unwavering in his support for the captain.

It is not in Fletcher's character to betray signs of vulnerability. Maybe that trait is a weakness of sorts. He is adamant that nearly all of England's problems have been caused by their inability to put on to the field the side they want. If there have been selectorial cock-ups he is not conceding them. It is not that he is either distrustful or disdainful of outsiders or the press, but it is easy to infer that he does not think they know much and he ain't telling.

But he has a way with teams and individuals which his age (he is 54) does not appear to be eroding. They are not all outrageous successes and there were some unhappy chaps on the tour of Australia. Mostly, that was down to lads who were not being given a game. The toys came out of their pram and Fletcher, while he has an avuncular aspect, is not one to go round picking them up and tucking his charges back in. Not that he was quite saying so.

"The team spirit on this tour was incredibly difficult to maintain and it was the hardest tour I have been on," he said. "The injuries, the defeats, the way it was structured, all contributed to that. I would hope I'm pretty good at man-management. I would think I get on well with all the guys. I worried when I came from South Africa to England because it's a whole different culture. But I'm fortunate to be able to say that right through my cricketing career, from schooldays captaining St Edward's School, and then playing for clubs like Rishton in Lancashire and then coaching at Western Province and Glamorgan, the one thing I have been able to do is have a good team spirit all the time. Where that comes from is handling the difficult guys, but I wouldn't know if I'm a natural leader."

His timing in dealing with people is usually immaculate. He keeps a black book in which he makes assiduous notes during matches. He will make observations therein about the team strategy but also about individual errors. He will rarely approach a player during or directly after a match but bide his time. Perhaps he may have a quiet word at the next net session, or meet him in his hotel room.

Fletcher has a mind which conjures up ideas. If he did not love coaching so much he would be an administrator. His plan for three video appeals by each side per innings has been on the ICC's books for years and is closer to coming to fruition. Because he is an outsider he can contemplate England touring in the summer. "Why not, why do we have to be in England in April and May? We could play a Test series in Zimbabwe in September and have a break in November and December. The guys need decent breaks."

He is not satisfied with the progress England have made, although he would much prefer that to be his estimation and not that of any critics who are lurking out there. "We've had to put new players into the side all the time and I find myself teaching things that the other lads in the side have already learned," he said. "I find myself repeating a team talk I gave nine months ago. If you'd had the same 15 that would have been old hat and you'd have been able to move on to something else."

Part of the reason, a large part, that Fletcher is obstinate in a refusal to concede any shortcomings is that it will be misinterpreted and he will be the butt of ill-informed criticism. But this can lead him into being misleading. When Andrew Flintoff returned to Australia in the last days of the tour after being treated at home, Fletcher said he would not be picked immediately. "Imagine what you lot would write if he broke down again." Two days later Flintoff was summoned to rejoin the party and played in the second VB final.

Some young players have irritated him, but their loss will be the greater. It is the side's most experienced player, Alec Stewart, who provides evidence that Fletcher is not always placid to the point of being inanimate. At The Oval in 2001, when Stewart gave notice that he was withdrawing from that winter's tour of India, he and Fletcher had a thunderous argument.

Under Fletcher, the one-day team have seemed to play catch-up with the rest of the world, though he denies it. He pointed to the difficulty of innovation in a new team but said that players were always working on individual development. Of these the Nick Knight reverse sweep is the most pleasing, but coming soon may be the James Anderson slower ball. Anderson, incidentally, is proof that while Fletcher is one of the soundest of judges of a cricketer he is also a lucky selector. Anderson was summoned from the Academy because of injuries and proved his worth immediately. Famously, Trescothick was called up to a NatWest Series squad in 2000 because of injury, scored 86 and the rest is history.

Fletcher has passed on some of his stoicism to his players. They will need it in South Africa, if they are to surprise anybody. If they do, it is guaranteed that they will all thank the coach.

Biography: Duncan Andrew Gwynne Fletcher

Born: 27 Sept 1948 Salisbury (now Harare).

Educated: Prince Edward School, Salisbury.

Career: Emigrated to South Africa after finishing playing in 1985. Computer analyst until 1993 and part-time coach to Cape Town University; director of cricket, Western Province 1993-97; coach Glamorgan 1997-99; coach England 1999.

Achievements: Played domestic cricket for Old Hararians and Mashonaland, and first-class for Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in Currie Cup. Captained Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup, scoring 69 not out and taking 4 for 42 in win over Australia, still Zimbabwe's only win against them. Coached Western Province to two first-class titles and one limited-overs competition victory; coached Glamorgan to County Championship in his first season. Sister Ann was captain of Zimbabwe's hockey gold-medal winning team at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.