Gooch and Essex tipped to provide a fitting farewell

The last Benson & Hedges Cup final between Essex and Warwickshire at Lord's today signifies the end of an era for domestic cricket in England. Sponsors of this tournament since 1972, the tobacco company's 30-year association with the game comes to an end.

It will be replaced by a 20-over competition next summer and the eventual sponsors of these evenings of bish-bash cricket have a hard act to follow. The B&H Cup has been a competition enjoyed immensely by both players and spectators.

How fitting it is then that Graham Gooch, the tournament's most successful player, is involved today in his new role as Essex coach. Gooch holds four records; scorer of the most runs (5,176), hundreds (15), Gold Awards (22) and the highest score (198 not out) and it is no surprise that the resurgence of Essex as a force in domestic cricket has coincided with his appointment.

Despite his round-shouldered, hang-dog appearance, Gooch is an inspirational figure who commands respect the moment he walks into a dressing-room. It is his partnership with Ronnie Irani, the Essex captain, and the team spirit they have instilled which has turned today's favourites from a fractured, unhappy outfit, torn apart by internal squabbling, into a slick, disciplined team that visibly enjoy their cricket.

Perhaps the most important ingredient in transforming Essex from a side that won just six of their 22 one-day games against county opposition in 2001 into a team who have triumphed in 10 out of 11 so far this season is hard work. Gary Player, the South African golfer, worked by the oft-quoted principle of "the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get" and under Gooch you can rest assured this will be their philosophy.

It is match-winning performances, though, that ultimately take teams through to finals and for Essex there has been no shortage of these. Between them Irani, Nasser Hussain and Andy Flower have won each of the six Gold Awards on offer this season. Irani has picked up three, which has resulted in his selection for England's one-day side, Flower, Essex's Zimbabwean overseas player, has won two and Hussain, playing with more freedom and enterprise than ever before, has bagged the other.

It is with the bat where Essex's strength lies. Their tactic this season has been to put the opposition in, take early wickets with the new ball, then sit back and contain through disciplined, if unspectacular, bowling. This will be backed up by good fielding, with the view that, whatever the opposition score batting first, they will knock them off.

The progress of Michael Powell's Warwickshire team to the final has been far less emphatic but no less dramatic. The Bears scraped through the zonal group stage on the basis of being one of the two best third-placed sides, but owe most for reaching today's showpiece to Neil Carter, their left-arm fast bowler.

In an epic semi-final at Old Trafford against Lancashire, Carter needed to hit three runs off the final ball to win the game and coolly swept Glenn Chapple for four. This unbelievably tense victory led to unforgettable celebrations from him and his team-mates, showing just how much it meant for a big, but lately underachieving, club like Warwickshire to get to the final.

Under their coach Bob Woolmer, Warwickshire are also a very imaginative and disciplined team but their chances today rely a great deal on their overseas player, Shaun Pollock. The South African all-rounder has been in magnificent form with the ball in this competition taking 14 wickets at 12.5 a piece and has received good support from that most popular of cricketers, Dougie Brown.

The player looking to impress more than any other at Lord's will be Warwickshire's highly rated young batsman Ian Bell. Despite being the outstanding prospect to come out of last winter's National Academy in Adelaide, Bell has not been in the best of form this season. This competition, however, has been good to him, he has scored 261 runs at 43.5, and the stage is set today for him to show everyone what he is capable of.

While Essex will be hard to beat, it would be nice if a good servant to English cricket, on its final day, has the weather and the exciting finish that its involvement deserves.