ONE face has stood out in the crowd wherever the England A party have gone in Australia. This country loves a battler and Mike Gatting, pugnacious in character as in looks, is that rare breed - an Englishman they take to their hearts.
He may be in an unfamiliar role as coach and unless you have kept your eyes open at a couple of net sessions there has been no chance to see the familiar stocky figure hunched over the bat.
That hardly matters to the many who have come to press the flesh with an old enemy and friend, even if they all seem to want to ask him about That Ball - the first Shane Warne delivery which bowled him round the pads in 1993.
Gatting has been to Australia so many times since he first came as an 18-year-old on a Whitbread scholarship that he could almost qualify for residence.
Like most English people he loves the sun here, the wide open spaces (particularly the golf courses), the freedom of the outdoor life, the food and not least the wines. So has it ever crossed his mind to settle in Australia? After all, Harold Larwood did.
``Yes, of course, it would be nice but . . . ``
Gatting does not complete the sentence, yet you sense that at heart the old bulldog would much miss too many things about the Old Dart (as early settlers called England). Anyway, at 39 he is now having to contemplate a time when he steps out of the saddle at Middlesex.
His plans are to captain the county for one more season. ``Then, if my form is still all right, I'll step down and have a summer as a player and then finish. But if it doesn't go right in 1997, maybe I'll pack up then.''
Don Bennett is due to retire as Middlesex coach in that time and Gatting acknowledges that he would be more than interested in taking over. Which is why it is instructive to watch him handle his young charges.
He has two levels of coaching proficiency but is still to take the advanced stage. ``It involves spending seven days at Lilleshall. I've put my name down but never had the time to go and do it.'' But it will be done, he assures.
Gatting's approach on this tour has been to concentrate on the mental side of the game. He reasons that the players already have a technical proficiency that would only be harmed if he intervened. Besides, on a nine-week trip, he considers that there is no time to make radical adjustments: ``Much better left to their county coaches back home.''
Instead he prepares the group psychologically. When the party arrived he told them what to expect, how tough it would be here, what kind of shots not to play on these harder wickets, how to deal with tail-enders.
He is a strong believer in the group mentality, players helping each other. ``This is a side that works hard and plays hard, and that's what has helped us to produce the results.''
Peter Such, the senior pro on this tour, has come across many coaches in his 15 years in the game. ``Everyone has a different approach. Gatting has been here so often that he can read their game-plan and prepare us accordingly.
``He's very flexible, not dogmatic but very determined - and immensely approachable: one of the boys, not at all an authoritarian figure.''
But woe betide the player who fails to attend to the small but important details. In Canberra, Yorkshire's Michael Vaughan was docked a single for a short run and then failed to push his partner for a fourth on the big outfield and against a poor arm.
Gatting wasted no time pointing out the errors when Vaughan returned to the pavilion. When I jokingly upbraided him for being ``a bit harsh'' on the player (he had scored a very good 40) Gatting raised his eyebrows: ``You don't get anywhere coming second.''
As a player Gatting has never been a great watcher from the sidelines, so does he feel frustrated at this necessary part of the coach's job? ``I've found it reasonably easy. It isn't for me to get totally involved. I'm on the periphery. If I see someone out there doing something wrong, there's nothing I can do about it till he comes off.''
Still, he has brought two bats with him - just in case - and he would clearly love to be back in the middle if the opportunity presented itself. At the moment though his greatest concern is hanging on to the bats. Vaughan and Craig White have shown more than a passing interest in their future ownership, but Gatting is determined that they will go home with him.
When he first arrived Gatting joked that he still had his Lplates on in this ``coaching lark''. Given the success of this tour, one suspects it will be the forerunner of other winter tours for the ex-England captain.
``I'd like to be involved in the England set-up somewhere,'' he says. ``The game has been good to me and I want to put something back into it now.''