Yorkshire then and now.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Last week I had the pleasure to listen to Mark Rowe, author of a new book on Brian Sellers, the former Yorkshire captain and cricket chairman for many years. As Mr Rowe admitted in his rather unorthodox presentation it was a book that should have been written by J.M. Kilburn, the long time Yorkshire Post cricket correspondent.

However Mark Rowe stated that he tried to have a balanced look at Sellers life. He was the most successful county captain of all time. Yet many people fell out with him or didn't like him, particularly in his role as administrator, or virtual dictator, that it was hard to find many plus points. I think the same can be said about Yorkshire's cricket during 2017 which has come in for a lot of criticism from the majority of supporters who demand success at all times.

The end to the season in the game against Essex at Chelmsford and the earlier game against the same opposition at Scarborough were very much the low points of the year and I had reached the stage where I felt it best not to comment at all as so much had been said already. However several people have urged me to express my opinion. My blogging colleague 'Backwatersman', who has entertained us all season with his writings on Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, was one who wanted to know what was going on - as if I knew!

So rather reluctantly here goes. The first thing to look at is the predicament of Andrew Gale, captain of two championship winning sides, thrown in at the deep end to replace Jason Gillespie as coach without any previous experience. Gale is of course very close to all the players, some might say too close, but no doubt he has their confidence and will have learned a lot from his first season in charge.
I am not one of those, and there are many, who are calling for his resignation. He needs more time to settle into the role and I for one am all in favour of having a Yorkshireman in charge rather than someone from overseas.

Which leads me nicely onto the next topic - overseas players, which has always been a thorny question for Yorkshire. They have had some very good ones notably Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan for instance, but also quite a lot who have not done the business. They had three overseas players for shortish periods of time in 2017, none of whom really distinguished themselves and without doubt proved the point that short term signings are a complete waste of time. I appreciate the difficulty in finding players who can commit to a whole season with the current crowded international programme but that is what is needed.

The next problem has been the loss of form by all the top order batsman. Only Gary Ballance, in the first half of the season, scored a large number of runs until his season was blighted by injury and international uncertainty. Most worrying for many people has been the loss of form of opening batsman Alex Lees, who looked a certainty for England honours two or three years ago. Who could ever forget his magnificent 275 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 2013?

Lees has tried to find his form in the second team and I saw him score a double century against Durham seconds at Riverside, but even there he didn't really seem to have regained his old fluency and continued to struggle in the first team, even going down the order to number three. Hopefully both he and Adam Lyth can regain their previous high standards next season. Jack Leaning is another who needs to find more consistency in championship cricket as he too has plenty of ability.

Now for the plus points and there were quite a few. The obvious choice is Ben Coad, who had a remarkable season and made a real breakthrough at senior level, after not many outstanding performances with the seconds. However what I like about him is his ability to bowl straight, the old Brian Statham theory 'you miss, I hit'.

The other player to impress me was Harry Brook, the young opening batsman, for both the Second Eleven and the Academy side. Runs a plenty in the first half of the season brought him promotion not only to the first team but to captain the England Under 19s. Then the runs dried up and he had a poor spell of form towards the end. He is a class player with an excellent temperament and I am sure he will come back strongly.

The Yorkshire Academy side had a good season in the Yorkshire Premier League North and only just missed out on the league title. Obviously not all of the players will make the grade at first class level but there are some both past and present who could still make it and I thought both Wainman, an opening bowler, and Thompson, an all rounder, deserved a first team chance last season.

Of course the biggest problem facing Yorkshire cricket, reflected on a regular basis by readers' letters in the Yorkshire Post is the continual absence of their England players. This will continue until the people running county cricket stand up for themselves and their members to emphasise that county cricket is not just there to provide Test players but is a treasured and valued competition in it's own right which should be marketed and promoted properly not just left to rot. The star players should be allowed to play for the county sides that produced them and the fixture programme should be planned accordingly instead of giving precedence to the money machine which is T20.

Brian Sellers was a man of forthright opinions and colourful language. One can only imagine what he would have said if his band of international players of the thirties or sixties had been taken away for the whole season.

County cricket's future is obviously very much in the balance but as long as it continues Yorkshire will produce good players. If only we could see them playing for the county rather than just for England. County members, most of whom like me belong to an older generation, are being written off by the money men now running the game. We must do all we can to stop them ruining what has always been an important part of the British way of life.