PAUL NEWMAN: Richard Thompson is just the ticket for English cricket

Perhaps it is a case of wishful thinking from an old hack who has been around the block a few times and seen so many England captains, coaches and administrators come and go.

But I can't help be a little optimistic after the developments of the last couple of weeks because it is a case now, as Ian Dury might have put it, of reasons to be cheerful, part three.

To be at Lord's for the unveiling of Rob Key as managing director, and then to sit in while Nasser Hussain conducted an interview with him for Sportsmail last week, was to listen to cricketing common sense which has been lacking by the bucketful in recent times.

Then to be at Durham for the first media appearance by Ben Stokes as captain was to be both reassured about his mental readiness for the job and excited about what he could do in charge of a talented but woefully under-performing Test team.

And to hear afterwards that Stokes enjoyed talking to the TV and radio crews and then the written press was encouraging, too, as it is the part of the job he perhaps would not be expected to relish the most.

Now comes what could be just as significant a development with the news that, as revealed by Sportsmail on Monday, Richard Thompson is planning to stand as ECB chair after an embarrassingly long and error-ridden search for Ian Watmore's replacement.

Thompson may not be as well-known to cricket supporters as Stokes and Key are, but he is the best, most forward-thinking and dynamic administrator in the game and has been the key figure behind the on and off pitch success of the Surrey juggernaut.

The ECB needs leadership like never before and Thompson can provide it. The word is he plans to be radical, too, at a pivotal time in the game's history. 

He could be just as