Marsh the master casts eye over the young pretenders and sees a star pupil in Blackwell

That extraordinary Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy semi-final at Taunton on Thursday, when Kent threw it away in seven balls of midsummer madness right at the end, spoke volumes about the vibrant state of English cricket. A total of 683 runs from a hundred overs in a game of this importance also showed that limited-overs cricket is always stretching itself to new and even more entertaining frontiers.

The groundsman who prepared a perfect one-day pitch was as much a hero as any of the players and, although Taunton is a small ground, there is no more perfect setting for the game in England. Added to which the weather not only minded its manners, it excelled itself.

Apart from the dramas in the evening, the most significant part of the day was the showing of a couple of young men who should soon be on their way to Rod Marsh's England Academy in Adelaide and one who has already made that journey. Australia's former wicketkeeper-batsman was in Taunton to cast his eye over a potential new charge or two.

He is forever the realist and knows that there is no such thing as a fast track to the arrivals lounge for Test cricket. All he can do is to make these young players aware of what they must do if they want to reach the top. Then, it is up to them.

Marsh is a hard man with a persuasive way of getting his views across and a good sense of humour to go with it. A hundred percent effort is the minimum he requires from these youngsters.

When discussing Simon Jones, he is visibly excited by the Welshman's potential to come through as a genuine fast bowler in Test cricket. Jones's effort and enthusiasm will have matched Marsh's own. He was happy about Alex Tudor's progress too, but when I asked him if he would have liked to have seen more of last winter's Academicians given an outing in the England side, he was adamant: "Certainly not, because that would have meant that England would have been having a bad time if they had needed more."

One of the reasons for his journey to the County Ground was to have a look at James Tredwell, the young Kent off-spinner, but sod's law had relegated him to twelfth man. There was plenty more for Marsh to savour, however, and, like everyone else, he was particularly impressed by Ian Blackwell, the man of the match who had come in fourth to hurry things along for Somerset. This, in his cheerful, bulky, left handed, Milburnesque way, he did with a bang. He made 86 from only 53 balls with an exhibition of controlled hitting which was full of both common sense and technique. He prompted Marsh to say that no one could have hit a cricket ball harder or with better placing.

Blackwell later held a fine low diving catch at mid-wicket, accounting for Matthew Walker. He also bowled eight overs of left-arm spin, alternating continually from over to round the wicked and back.

Admittedly, they cost 69 runs but he flighted one cleverly enough to deceive Andrew Symonds and have him caught at short fine leg when he was winning the match for Kent.

Blackwell began his career with Derbyshire and, like others before him, has found that the idiosyncratic charms of Somerset cricket have done wonders for him. He has developed into a free spirit of a cricketer which, in these conformist days, happens all too rarely. He is talented and versatile and his Falstaffian figure lends emphasis and character to his game just as it had once done to Colin Milburn's.

Blackwell, who is 24, could, one day, give the Australians the shock of their lives. He is on the preliminary list of those to go this winter to the England Academy and Marsh enjoyed this exciting glimpse of another unusual talent whom he will back himself to steer into the England side.

The 22-year-old left arm seamer, Matthew Bulbeck, is another who may well winter in Adelaide and he will have done himself no harm in this amazing game. He did not bowl a bad spell at the start of the innings when Matthew Fleming, in particular, and Robert Key were looking to flex their muscles. His last two overs, at the very end of the innings which cost only six runs and included the wicket of David Masters, were exemplary.

Marsh will also have been pleased to see the way in which Key set about his task. The squad, which was announced yesterday, for this week's Second Test suggests that Key will be the next Academician to make it into the Test side. England are lucky to have Marsh and it looks as if he himself is lucky to have such splendid raw materials with which to work. There is plenty of talent around, make no mistake.