I WOULD like to take this opportunity to thank that charitable soul who at Canterbury last Friday provided a much-needed boost to morale by reminding me that ``form is temporary but class is permanent'' as I trudged back to the pavilion.

It had not been a long innings. It wasn't a first-baller, yet it wasn't one of those marathon knocks that guarantees the next man in has had time to get his pads on. In fact, it would have been a considerably shorter stay at the crease if I hadn't torn my trousers from kneecap to kneecap while executing an elegant forward defensive (for elegant read uncontrolled and for forward defensive read lunge) against Robert Croft.

Play was held up for some time while Matthew Maynard, crouching at silly point, highlighted the scale of my problem. It was not a 'chest out, shoulders back' walk-off, more of a 'where's that hole in the ground when you really need it?' trudge. So the cry from the aforementioned Samaritan represented welcome crumbs of comfort.

Imagine my humiliation when some wag stage-whispered in a Brian Blessed type of bellow to his neighbour and the surrounding grandstands: ``Pity you haven't got either.'' It is not easy maintaining one's dignity when your trousers are doing a passable impression of a spinnaker, free of tobacco advertising, and yet some absolute brute has just taken the wind out of your sails.

It's true my scores may not have made particularly impressive reading of late; it's also true that having ripped the heart out of the Glamorgan second innings, Hugh Morris mis-pulling a long-hop to midwicket and Croft getting a leading edge to mid-on, my tally of wickets for the season stood at four, double my aggregate of championship runs.

Statistics alone do not tell the whole story. Granted, at the beginning of the season, I was not in great form. I only had to look at my methods of dismissal to realise how badly I was batting: caught behind off a defensive prod, chipping the ball to short midwicket and playing-on off a half-hearted nudge, but things had changed.

In recent innings, I have been caught at third man, caught and bowled off a full-blooded drive and caught at deep extra cover. Therefore, the wag's implication about a lack of class may indeed have been accurate, but a lack of form - that was unfair.

At least six counties were waiting on the announcement of the Australian touring team before being able to confirm their overseas cricketers for the 1997 season. This is not a problem that is going to go away.

It is being discussed in all the county dressing-rooms as it is one of the areas of concern being covered in the Professional Cricketers' Association's questionnaire. Are we merely teaching the world's leading players to perform in English conditions, or are we ourselves learning from them?

In Derbyshire, Worcestershire and Durham, it is highly unlikely that we are doing any great service to Australia, yet Dean Jones, Tom Moody and David Boon are helping the likes of Andy Harris, Vikram Solanki and Melvyn Betts and their colleagues to become better players and preparing them for the international stage.

At a time when our Premiership is signing the world's greatest footballers, rugby league is attracting players of the highest international stature and sports previously considered to be on the fringe, such as American football, ice hockey and basketball, are all becoming homes to the world's best, it seems odd that we are threatening to jettison some of our most marketable assets.

At a time when the cake that is sports sponsorship is becoming smaller and more and more people are scrapping for a slice of it, perhaps we should ensure that we compete on a level playing field.

The professional cricketers all understand what an important time this is for English cricket. You can be sure that issues such as overseas cricketers, a two-divisional championship, relegation and promotion, regional cricket, one-day cricket and the future of second XI cricket will all be fully discussed.

We may not come up with all the right answers but they will be thoroughly considered and honestly given. We are aware that we have a duty to leave the game in a better state than it was when we started.