John Winn has summed up the events in Yorkshire's match with Kent last week very nicely. Fortunately I only saw the final two days and was spared the earlier humiliations at the hands of Darren Stevens and Sam Billings. Their partnership of 346 for the sixth wicket brought back memories for me of a match in 1949 when the Sussex pair of James Langridge and George Cox put on 326 for the fourth wicket and batted all of the last day at Headingley in a drawn match. Langridge made 133 not out and Cox 212 not out. Needless to say Yorkshire went on to share the championship with Middlesex.
So having followed the fortunes of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for over 70 years now I perhaps feel somewhat qualified to comment on the present sad state of affairs. It is disappointing to see in today's cricketing press quotes suggesting that the answer is to bring in two experienced batsmen from either other counties or overseas. To me this does not seem the answer. The recent policies of recruiting players from outside the county has failed completely. In my humble opinion only two of the recent recruits from elsewhere seem to have fitted in. These are Kohler-Cadmore and Fraine, who both had previous Yorkshire connections.
Many of my friends, like myself, are totally opposed to the importation of overseas players on short term contracts. Over recent seasons a whole list of failures have appeared, the only one to have distinguished himself was Maharaj, whose future seems clouded in uncertainty. The performance of the latest acquisition in the Kent match equalled that of Billings with centuries in each innings but of course off his bowling.
Surely the management should look at the latent talent within the county rather than outside. It was good to see Revis given his chance against Kent and to see that Tom Loten is in the squad for tomorrow's game with Warwickshire. These two along with Wharton and Hill should be the players that Yorkshire give regular games to next season, not just the odd token appearance. Give players time to develop and to gain experience. I for one would not complain if a young side were relegated, but given time and the ability to bond together as a team (which seems sadly lacking at present) for the long term future.
Cricket is unfortunately becoming more and more like football with managers and coaches feeling that instant success is all that matters and the fear of being sacked if relegation happens overrides everything else. One final point, we are Yorkshire and should be proud of our traditions and history.
Surely our representatives should be leading the way in taking on the ECB and questioning their every action to ruin the game we love instead of sitting back and taking the money.
Back to the action on the field. It is difficult to forget that on day one Kent were 39-5 and managed to total 482-8. On day three their second innings seemed unduly prolonged before the declaration eventually came. Before then young wicket keeper Ollie Robinson, was unfortunate to miss out on a century, when dismissed for 97. Sam Billings, not content with his first innings century, went on and on, treating all the bowling with disdain and was 122 not out when he finally declared.
Even so Billings' performance could not earn him the title of man of the match and this undoubtedly went to the wonderful 43 year old Darren Stevens - 237 with the bat and 5-20 with the ball in the second innings. When returning to his fielding position on the fine leg boundary after bowling another successful over he was greeted with a voice from the crowd saying 'why don't you come and play for us', to which his reply was 'well, I'm unemployed as we speak'. Not for long I'm sure.
By the way I forgot to mention that Kent won by 433 runs.
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