England cricketers Darren Gough, Ronnie Irani and James Foster joined the Town training today as Essex began their build up to the new season.

Former England and Essex skipper Graham Gooch accompanied the team with Gough meeting up with an old friend from his teenage days.

"I was at Barnsley as a schoolboy with Andy Rhodes when he was in goal for the first-team," the Essex all-rounder told the Club website.

Gough - training with Town

"Andy coached some of the schoolboys including myself so it was good to meet up with him because I haven't seen him for years."

Gooch was delighted that Town had invited his team down to spend a day at the training ground and added: "Some of the lads are Ipswich fans so it was extra special for them but it was a good day all round.

"You've got to be very fit to play cricket now with the one-dayers and Twenty Twenty and chasing a ball around for two hours will do them a lot of good - and they did seem to do a lot of chasing.