SO not just a new coach, but a new captain too -- well, an old one strictly speaking.

That's ex of course, not aged. Nevertheless, the ageless Hicky leads the old guard, while Steve Davies leads the new and is having to do so from the front.

Noffke, Caddick and Otis Gibson have been his first three nemesises, all internationals and handy with the new ball.

Double figures must seem a distant dreamland and doubt his constant companion. For Davies and Worcestershire the key question is whether he will be burned or tempered by the experience.

Whatever the answer to that, his promotion, at the expense of Stephen Peters, has coincided with a good spell for Worcestershire in four-day cricket.

Older Steve will sympathise with the younger one's plight, while hoping the break will allow him to rediscover his own form and confidence.

Steve Davies might appreciate the freedom of the up-coming Twenty20 competition, matches in which the third Stephen, Moore, made an impressive debut two seasons ago.

Warwickshire are first up at New Road in this year's expanded format. Two leagues of nine allow each county to have four home matches as this mid-summer period is given over to cricketing madness.

But who's complaining after events in Hampshire last week. Twenty20 will become the stuff of myths, 79 a number to put alongside '66 and The Rose Bowl a venue to mention in the same breath as Sydney's Telstra Stadium.

I wonder how I would have adapted? You don't even get one to peep. It really is hit or miss and the random quality of the phrase is appropriate. So don't read too much into Australia's demise. Mind you, if wickets do start to fall, I can imagine 79 being chirped a few times.

Twenty20 will grow and grow or should that be shrink and shrink? Will its success spawn an even shorter version, Ten2Ten for a modern audience in search of ever more instant gratification? Probably not.

In truth its success is down to the way it condenses cricket's essential delights of hitting, catching and stumps flying into a time slot when people want to watch. And long may it continue -- I love it.

I hope Steve Davies plays; I don't think Matt Mason will though. This next couple of weeks offers the opportunity for him to rest up for the second half of the season.

His 'five-for' in the second innings against Somerset set up that victory as surely as Ben Smith's hundred against Essex. It is the bowler's statistical century and how good to see Nadeem Malik following in his footsteps against Leicestershire.

These performances are real ale to Twenty20's fizzy pop, but if we're beating Australia each time I'll tolerate a little indigestion.

Maybe Tom Moody got out just in time!