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"I first met Michael when he was 13. He's a good player and great to have around when available for Yorkshire,鈥� he told me.

鈥淲hen he's with England you can see how much he's improved as a captain from when he started.

鈥淚'm sure the job of England captain will be his for as long as he wants it to be."

One thing Gough has experienced is the pressure than comes from a dip in form and injury. He was written off several times and managed to come back and he thinks Vaughan can do likewise should pressure start to build during the forthcoming series.

"I think he will cope pretty well. He's had a good career and has probably earned enough money now to retire from cricket if he wanted to.

鈥淏ut he still wants to prove things to people after the knee injury. He is still one of the three best batsmen in England.

"People don't see Michael as a guy who can discipline players because he's not a big guy or strong guy but on the mental side he is very strong and knows how to deal with his players.

鈥淗e's got some funny characters in that side and he has to know how to deal with them and he does.

"If his squad stay fit I think they will win in New Zealand comfortably".

Gough is not a fan of spilt captaincy but believes it works now with Vaughan and Paul Collingwood because they are such good friends.

He thinks Collingwood is coming on well as skipper of the limited-overs side and one day he could be ready to take over, but not just yet.

"To be captain you need someone totally mature and intelligent and Michael is that man at the moment.鈥�

As for Gough himself, he feels this will be his last season as a cricketer but also has to consider Yorkshire and the campaign to come.

"I still enjoy playing for Yorkshire and love the fact that I'm captain and it's a challenge that I needed.

鈥淚've got this year to go and see where we are from there.

鈥淣ever say never. If we do well and do some of the good things we did last year I'm sure they will try and persuade me to do one more season."

"I still want to be able to perform. I thought I did an excellent job last year and people within the club thought that as well.

鈥淚t's about timing and seeing what youngsters we have coming through. I don't want to stop anybody coming through now with me at 38 years of age in September.鈥�

He doesn't rule out some involvement on a part-time playing basis and working with the youngsters.

Since Christmas, Gough has been back in his dancing shoes. He's always been a showman - one of his nicknames is 鈥淏ox Office鈥� - but even so his success as a dancer and personality is still sinking in.

"I never thought two-and-half years ago I would be on tour doing sell-out dates in arenas around the UK. It's been amazing and great fun.

"The experience is totally different to that of playing cricket. I never really get nervous on a cricket field, I always have confidence in my ability.

鈥淚've played in front of 120,000 people in India but to have 11,000 on top of you, as we had in Manchester for example, I can't explain how nervous I was.

The diversion from cricket to dancing has opened up a lot of new avenues to Gough. The question must soon be what happens after cricket?

The problem facing Gough - if it is a problem - is how he will be remembered. Walking down the street he turns heads not because of his 463 Test and ODI wickets for England but for his consistent marks of 5.0 from the likes from Len and Co on the judges鈥� panel.

It's something he's aware of.

"When you add up my wickets in both forms of the game, second behind Sir Ian Botham it can be annoying at times,鈥� he said.

鈥淏ut at the end of the day I know I achieved everything I could have in cricket, and it got cut short by injury when I was probably at my peak in the Test arena."

Check out the Darren Gough interview here.

Look out for Gough in Sport Relief in March. From pupil to tutor he's going to try his hand at teaching dance as part of the money-raising event.

He's also back on 5 Live this summer with his cricket show. He's looking forward to that and to leading Yorkshire throughout the season.

After that, whatever happens Darren Gough, the cricketer and showman, will be entertaining somebody somewhere.