GRAHAM GOOCH retired from first-class cricket in the middle of his 25th season at Chelmsford on Saturday and said he wanted to see county staffs trimmed and the system changed.

Only a batsman of his calibre and achievement - by implication, the exception that proved the rule - could have got away with that.

Gooch talked eloquently about cricket after Graeme Hick's hundred, and rain, had condemned Essex's four-day game against Worcestershire, his final match, to a low-key draw.

He declined an offer by Tom Moody, Worcestershire's captain, to bat during the dead remaining minutes, and his first-innings dismissal by Alamgir Sheriyar for 11 remained his final score.

Though safely retired as a cricketer, Gooch knew that frustration, this time as an England selector, was lurking around the corner and, even as he spoke, England were wilting with shocking speed against Australia at Headingley.

After breaking open champagne at Chelmsford and vowing to put all his cricket gear in the loft, he insisted that attitudes had to change in county cricket.

He said: ``You can't be hard-nosed, competitive, whatever you want to call it, at top level if you haven't been taught that as you come through the ranks.

``You can't suddenly acquire it when you get to the international stage. It has got to be in-bred all the way through the system - and that's where the Australians have had the edge over the years.

``I believe we should have less county players. Only the best should play, and we should trim down the staffs.

``We should cap it in terms of how many players a county can employ no more than 20 - so that the average players are not employed. I don't think they raise the standards of the game.

``But I don't see the point as things currently stand, where some counties have got 22 or more pros, staff for more than two teams, and they are leaving paid pros out of the 2nd XI because they are top-heavy with players.''

Gooch would like to see academies at every county. ``I would force counties to play 18 and 19-year-olds in your second team, and that would still leave spaces for the four or five members of your first-team squad, who were either trying to regain fitness or a bit of form.

``We have also got to work towards exposing our good, young first-class cricketers at 19 as opposed to 21 or 22. There are one or two exceptions over the years, like Mark Ramprakash and now Ben Hollioake.

``But the majority start to show their straps at 21 to 22, and I'd like to see them at 19. For that to happen, we've got to bring the system forward.''

In 1973, when Gooch joined the Essex staff from Ilford, the excitement was less than overwhelming, because the county handbook identified him as ``the most promising native accession to the ranks since Keith Pont.'' With due respect to Keith . . .

A quarter of a century later, here was Gooch signing 300 scorecoards of his last match in gold ink, a limited run on sale at Chelmsford for £5 each, the proceeds split between the club and the benefit fund of his close friend, Alan Lilley.

Career details

GRAHAM ALAN GOOCH

Born: July 23, 1953, in Leytonstone.

BATTING
                 M    I   NO    R     HS  Avge   100
First-class     580  988  75  44841  333  49.11  128
Test            118  215   6   8900  333  42.58   20
1-day int       125  122   6   4290  142  36.98    8

CATCHES
First-class          556
Test                 103
1-day internationals  45

BOWLING
                  R    W   Avge   Best  5w
First-class     8457  246  34.37  7-14  3
Test            1069   23  46.48  3-39  -
1-day int       1516   36  42.11  3-19  -