Lloyd keen to bring the smile back to England

David Lloyd's appointment as England's cricket coach following the withdrawal of John Emburey is in keeping with his whole career. He has a knack of being in exactly the right place when the favourite stumbles.

He became an England opening batsman when Geoffrey Boycott declined to play for three years in the mid-Seventies, and thus took the full force of Lillee and Thomson at their fastest in Australia (he still averaged 42 in nine Tests).

He became Lancashire's captain, aged 26, in succession to Jack Bond, ahead of a regiment of better-known players - Clive Lloyd, Farokh Engineer, Jack Simmons, Peter Lever, Barry Wood, Frank Hayes - and demonstrated how much he had learnt from Bond by getting to three Gillette Cups finals (winning one of them) and two Benson and Hedges semi-finals.

Finally he became Lancashire's coach only after the surprise departure of the former captain David Hughes and coach Alan Ormrod, who had been fully expected to continue their successful partnership into management.

He seems reluctant to be seen to be seeking promotion, yet promotion comes his way with regularity.

Throughout his playing career Lloyd was terse about his biographical details and kept his strong opinions mostly to himself. This is changing. This last week, for the first time, he implied that he would be pleased to take over England if the post was offered.

Now that it has been, we can expect the new man to show considerable enthusiasm for the one-day games against India and Pakistan this summer. Despite England's disastrous showing at the World Cup, Lloyd is a vehement advocate of the shorter game.

"After the World Cup can anyone seriously suggest that that wasn't great cricket? I accept it's different from first-class and different qualities and techniques are required, but in the end you still have to make runs, take wickets and hold catches. Now that the 15-overs rule has brought the spinners back into the game they are having to re-learn how to buy wickets, as the old-timers did. Tactically those World Cup games were as fascinating as any Test matches," he said.

Such views will cause a few tremors among the traditionalists but it is his enthusiasm, and freshness of approach, which has won Lloyd the approval of his county, the Board and which led to his successful appointment as coach to England's successful under-19 team.

There is a story, going back 25 years, of the Manchester Evening News cricket correspondent seeking the score of a second-team match at Old Trafford. He telephoned a young and inexperienced reporter who told him Lloyd had got a century. "Which Lloyd?"

Pause, then came the reply: "The one with glasses".

Perhaps the only similarity between Clive (Hubert) Lloyd and David ("Bumble") Lloyd is that both are left-handers. Clive, then the world's most awesome batsman, wore glasses, as did David later in his career. Now Clive, a Lancashire committee man, has been installed as the West Indies' manager while David, Lancashire's coach, has become England's. Is the Red Rose taking over the world?

David, Lancashire captain from 1973-7, did lead the side before Clive, captain 1981-3, and both would admit they learnt much from Bond, 1968- 72, a leader whose stature will increase as the game moves, inevitably, further towards limited-overs' play. Bond, in his five years, won three Gillette Cups and two Sunday Leagues; while Bond could claim to have taught England how to play the one-day game, Lloyd was the assiduous pupil.

Lloyd is a proud son of Accrington. He and his wife Susan are separated but one of his sons, Graham, is a powerful batsman in the Lancashire side. The two share the same nickname, Bumble, derived from the father's resemblance to a character of the same name in a long-forgotten TV series.

The sobriquet certainly has nothing to do with his vocal delivery. His forthright views, expressed in a rich East Lancashire accent, have frequently brightened radio and TV commentaries. He is also one of the most accomplished speakers on the lucrative after-dinner circuit.

He has always been able to turn his lively sense of humour to advantage. He once dissolved what could have been an ugly incident in a Roses match at Leeds when Peter Lever, who was fielding in front of the betting tent, was being barracked by a group of intoxicated Yorkshiremen. Lever took this good-humouredly for a while but then it turned nasty, and for a moment it looked as though a section of the crowd might spill on to the field - and Lever would not have drawn back. Lloyd held up play, called up Lever, and dispatched in his place, Harry Pilling, all of 63 inches high. The crowd collapsed in laughter. "I told Harry to sort 'em out," Lloyd said afterwards.

Sometimes the joke is on him. Last summer the Lancashire team "invented" a complaining member who proceeded to bombard the coach with complaints about team selection, players, tactics, its captain and coach, but resolutely refused to reveal his identity. An exasperated Lloyd resorted to the airwaves more than once to tempt his tormentor to come forward, and even took to ringing every one of the members' named in the Greater Manchester telephone directory.

How he will fit in between Raymond Illingworth, that most practical of Yorkshireman, and Mike Atherton, a captain who now seems to reserve his smiles for his friends, will be the key to England's hopes of a revival. If the chemistry is right, the trio could be a startling success. One thing is certain. It will be a laugh.