He ran miles every day, then he trained in the nets and then he played and sometimes he would run some more. He was dedicated, and he expected everybody else to be like that He could not work out why they weren’t There was a downside to this. We would go out for dinner some nights and by eight o’ clock he would be asleep in his plate. He got me running too, important as I got older, but David Gower and Ian Botham never did Graham couldn’t get it. We worked pretty well as captain and vice-captain, him as the man who led from the front while I sort of kept the camaraderie going.

We listened to each other, respected each other, but there was a breakdown in communications when I lost the vice-captaincy. He never called me to let me know what was going on, I had to work it out for myself. He did a wonderful job, except in handling older players maybe, but what a player he was. We put on more than 300 against India at Lord’s in 1990 when he got his triple hundred but it’s hard to recall it because it was all over so quickly I was there and gone in two sessions. We just decided to smash it around.”The opening partnerJohn StephensonNOW Hampshire’s captain, he opened the batting with Gooch for eight seasons at Essex (and once for England, Stephenson’s only cap). It was Gooch’s most prolific partnership.”BATTING with the man was a dream. He scored his runs quickly so that made it easier if you were at the other end.

The bowlers were always giving it their best shot against him, so that might have helped his partner too. He helped me immensely, both in terms of technique and fitness. We may be different types of batsmen but we have the same single-minded approach to the game in terms of preparation. There were so many highlights sharing an innings with him and it seemed to work from the first time we opened together It was at Southend in 1986 against Worcestershire. We put on 214 for the first wicket, and during the course of this, with Goochy talking to me a lot, he got hold of their off-break bowler Dipak Patel It was a personal master class in how to play spin. Probably the proudest match of our time together was at Northampton in 1990 We put on more than 200 in both innings.