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Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch would both be members of a select XI of the finest English county cricketers since the war, but their days of selecting England teams are near the end. It is also possible that the idea of introducing central contracts for England players will meet a similar fate.

Details of the ECB's latest attempt to produce a winning England team were subject to the approval of England's new captain and future coach, Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher, when they met in Cardiff last night. But nothing the two men said would persuade the England Management Advisory Committee to renew the selectorial terms of Gatting and Gooch, while David Graveney will continue as chairman.

The strength of Gatting and Gooch -their close acquaintance with county cricket - has turned out to be more of a weakness. The two selectors have not achieved sufficient detachment from their Middlesex and Essex pasts to have their terms renewed. Gooch's expires at the end of August, Gatting's at the end of February next year.

Marginal England places have gone to the South-East in undue proportion, not so much on Test tours as on A tours. The last three years have not been a good time to be a Midlands cricketer: to reach the Test team, Aftab Habib, never given an A tour, needed the advocacy of Leicestershire's coach Jack Birkenshaw once he was appointed an official observer. Gatting, moreover, has yet to put Middlesex's house in order as their director of coaching.

The future selection process will be designed to give the England captain, backed by Fletcher, what he wants (no more supremos, like Ray Illingworth, dictating from beyond the boundary). One debate before these changes are announced during the coming week is likely to centre on the fourth selector with Graveney, Hussain and Fletcher: either Birkenshaw or a younger man. Gooch will also lose the job he had last winter of England tour manager, to which he was not suited as his natural bent now is for coaching (which in Australia made him overlap with David Lloyd). A permanent role as national batting coach will suit Gooch and his wish not to spend long periods abroad.

His successor as England team manager for this winter will be Phil Neale, who is about to be replaced as Warwickshire's coach by Bob Woolmer. Neale is something of a specialist in South Africa and administration there as he has managed two England A tours to the country and Warwickshire's annual pre-season visits.

Neale may prove to be little more than a stop-gap, however, as James Whitaker - the Leicestershire captain who is about to retire - will be appointed manager of this winter's A tour to New Zealand and Bangladesh. His county colleague, Birkenshaw, will be coach.

Whether Whitaker, or Neale, or anyone else, will then be appointed as England's first full-time manager is now uncertain. A key factor in the ECB's attempt to improve the standard of the England Test team the introduction of central contracts - is unlikely to meet its target date of spring 2000; and perhaps there never will be a squad of 15 or 16 England players contracted to the ECB every summer for a full-time manager to manage.

The idea of central contracts was designed to put England in line with Australia and South Africa, and has been approved in principle by the first-class counties. But the subject was not even on the agenda of Thursday's EMAC meeting.

Money, or ``affordability,'' will be given as the official reason if the introduction of central contracting is postponed. But there are two other sources of tension within the scheme which have yet to be reconciled, and may never be.

The first is the high risk that England players will not sign central contracts as there is precious little financial incentive for them to do so. ``Payment to players should be based on the general principle of a modest yet appropriate basic contract fee'' is the untempting wording of the report compiled by the Trangmar Committee, ``with substantial awards being made for team performance''. An England player may even be worse off if his county is meanwhile enjoying a trophy-winning season.

The ECB will have to find up to L1 million per summer to fund central contracts - most of which will go to the counties as a form of compensation.

At present, 75 per cent of an England player's match fee is paid to a county in compensation: if a player plays six Tests and six one-day internationals in a summer, his fee is L25,200 and the compensation for his county L18,900. Compensation, if the scheme is introduced, is likely to be doubled at least.

The report has been the work of Don Trangmar himself as the chairman of Sussex, Paul Sheldon the chief executive of Surrey, and Peter Anderson, the chief executive of Somerset, along with the International Teams Director Simon Pack. Apart from one briefing, the only active first-class cricketer on the committee, Angus Fraser, has not been consulted at all since last year.