Gooch backs Hick for two more years

Graeme Hick is set to pass Graham Gooch's record of 1195 matches this evening

Graham Gooch believes Graeme Hick can play county cricket for another two seasons as the Worcestershire batsman prepares to break his all-time appearance record.

Former England captain Gooch holds the world record for the most matches - 1195 - which spanned more than two illustrious decades with his country and Essex.

But Zimbabwe-born Hick will surpass that figure when he turns out for the Royals in their Twenty20 Cup clash with Somerset Sabres at New Road today - nearly 25 years after making his debut for the midlands county.

The 42-year-old also played for England and Northern Districts in New Zealand on his way to achieving the milestone.

Gooch, who is now the Essex batting coach, said: "I didn't know I had played the most first-team games of all time. People tell me about the number of runs and all that sort of stuff.

"But good luck to Graeme. I brought him into the Test team in 1991 (when captain). Sadly he never quite reached the heights in Test cricket and international cricket that he did at first-class level.

"That doesn't take anything away from his ability as a player and a person and to be able to play on into his 40s.

"He is very fit still and athletic for his age, from what I've seen of him with Worcestershire this season, he is probably good for at least one or two more seasons."

Gooch added: "It just depends whether he has got the motivation to carry on.

"He will know the time to finish but, from what I've seen there is one more season, maybe more, within his capabilities.

Gooch was England captain when Hick made his Test debut in 1991, the first of his 65 appearances

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“I retired from Test cricket in 1995 and first-class cricket in 1997 because suddenly you are scoring a few runs but not the volume you expect of yourself.

“You are not getting the big scores you expect, and you suddenly realise something is not quite right, or that special gift you had is starting to leave you.

“You want to satisfy yourself you are doing your best and there is a level of performance you have to achieve. When you don’t achieve that, it is time to question whether you should play on.

“I am sure at some stage that will come to Graeme as well. It is always good to go out at the top.

“It is always good to be asked ’Why did you retire’ rather than people saying ’He went on too long.’

Hick is also closing in on another set of records held by Gooch who retired from first-class cricket during the 1997 campaign - two years after ending his international career.

He needs 282 more runs to overtake Gooch's tally of 22,211 and become first on the all-time list of career List A runs scored.

Hick also requires five more hundreds to overtake Gooch's total of 44 List A tons and become second on the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar, the only player to score over 50 one-day centuries.