I've nothing against Butcher and Hussain... but with the best will in the world they were NEVER going to be the players that Ramps and Crawley could have been. Same with Collingwood and Bell: the former has made the most of his talents... but Bell is already better and has the potential to be MUCH better.

Sadly, Fletcher didn't see it as his personal challenge to get such players to maximise their potential: he preferred to see folk like those two, Caddick, Harmison and others as "difficult"... and just see the challenge of maximising their potential as THEIR problem.

The result was selection based on ability to make the most of lesser talent: a grotesque dereliction of duty.

Nothing exemplified this better than the obsession with the "multi-dimensional" player: I generally got the impression that Fletcher would have willingly passed up a Gower in favour of a Gooch, plus a Tuffers in favour of a Louden and so on. Add in his obsession with pace (and bear in mind that he wanted to ditch Hoggard permanently in 2004 on the grounds that the Yorkshireman was "too slow")... and you've a pretty sorry character.