Lord MacLaurin and Tim Lamb, chairman and chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, plan to set up a management course of up to three days, probably before the Australian touring team arrive next summer.

All 16 players in the current touring team, and about 10 more likely to be involved this season or in the near future, will be invited. The players will be given help in such matters as dealing with the media, judging the worth of would-be agents and managing personal finances.

Already this winter Lamb and his public affairs manager, Richard Little, have started sending county coaches to management and media courses at Bradford University and the results, Lamb says, have been encouraging. The course planned for England players in the spring is also likely to include some sort of 'outward bound' challenge to increase initiative, help team-bonding and the development of character.

In the long-term the hope is that this sort of assistance will do more than build up an esprit de corps. It should help players cope better in a number of areas where some of them have been found wanting, such as presenting themselves with more assurance in public, dressing appropriately and taking a broader view of other cultures on 'difficult' tours like India or Zimbabwe.

MacLaurin made no secret of his disapproval of the team's public relations in Zimbabwe. The chairman of Tesco, who has been elected chairman of the ECB for at least two years, wants to give England cricketers the advice and support commonly given to rising executives in other fields.

``It is clear to me that in the past our administration has failed to give the necessary support to our young cricketers. By the time they are 35 they are going downhill,'' observed MacLaurin in Wellington during his second watching and fact-finding mission of the winter. This one had a much happier outcome.

He added: ``Young cricketers can suddenly become superstars without any idea of how to handle themselves. Sometimes some of our players have let themselves and the country down. We clearly need to improve our own administration of cricket, which is ama- teurish, and the structure of the cricket we play.

``If you are to be successful you have got to give people power and then give them time. In Zimbabwe we failed to prepare the players properly. They knew nothing about the culture, which wasn't fair on them. They are young athletes. We have a big responsibility to help them do their job to the best of their ability. We've got to make them understand the honour of playing for England.''

A press relations officer, to handle communications with the vastly expanded media corps on a modern tour, is one possibility being strongly considered. It would be no surprise if an appointment were made before the quadrangular tournament in Sharjah, which England will take part in next December, and for the tour of the West Indies between January and April next year, which is expected to include Tests in Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados and Antigua, followed by five one-day internationals, two in St Vincent.

MacLaurin and Lamb are also looking at The Management of the England side, both at home and overseas. Already it has been decided that all England players will take the field with the same headgear from next season, all with the traditional crest of a crown and three lions.

Discussions with a new sponsor are at an advanced stage and the authorities are confident the company concerned will be acceptable to everyone, unlike the present sponsors, the brewers Tetley's, whose patronage has not sat comfortably with previous Board strictures on drunken spectators.

It is wonderful what one overseas Test win will do to bring some cohesion to all the forward thinking. The proof of MacLaurin's impression that the first-class counties are unanimous in their desire to make the success of the England team their first priority will be, however, the way in which they react if some of their own interests are compromised within a more competitive structure, whatever that may be.

The England players themselves have a well-earned break from competition today after flying yesterday from Wellington to Christchurch, where the third Test starts on Friday.