Rashid’s decision to play red-ball cricket for England but not his county has caused a stink and now we should be informed exactly what is behind this standoffAdil Rashid’s selection by England for the first Test with India has caused one hell of a stink. But until he and Yorkshire go public on the true reasons why he currently does not want to play four-day cricket for the club, so much of the criticism flying around will be ill-informed.Because let’s be honest, it’s pretty clear that this is not a case of Rashid simply not wanting to play red-ball cricket, given he’s accepted the call-up. It seems from the outside that he doesn’t want to play red-ball cricket for Yorkshire....
Essex and Worcestershire will remember the 2017 season for ever while Middlesex and Yorkshire cannot forget it soon enoughWith a word for Worcestershire, another of the little guys whose overachievement has been fostered at home, this has to be Essex. Well supported from east London to East Anglia, brilliantly coached and captained, and with the best spinner, seamer and eight blokes who scored a ton. Little wonder they won. Related: Hampshire’s James Vince ensures Middlesex complete slide to relegation Related: County Championship: fans from all 18 counties look back on the season Continue reading...
Yorkshire town hopes team’s promotion to the big time energises the area in a repeat of the Swansea trickle-down effectThe Huddersfield Town megastore by the main entrance to the John Smith’s Stadium is not mega in the normal sense: it’s more like a boutique, even though the sales space has to be shared with the football club’s groundmates, the Huddersfield Giants rugby league team. But right now business is mega all right.On Saturday Huddersfield make their debut in that gravity-defying financial phenomenon, the Premier League, and all day, every day the population of this normally sane and down-to-earth town have been pouring in to get their replica shirts and ancillary souvenirs and tat. Four staff members were working non-stop on...
Past bodes well for county’s 10th national leader, who can look back on a lineage of lords, knights and no little silverwareSo the three-day event that has been the deliverance of the new England captain finally came to a conclusion at sunny Headingley. Up stepped Joe Root in his collar, tie and blazer, two days after Andrew Strauss had confirmed the bleeding obvious, plenty of time for him to compose a manifesto.To the relief of his Yorkshire forebears his first aspiration had a familiar ring. “I’d like to be a captain that wins,” he said. Raymond Illingworth will be pleased by that. When he was in charge of the 1970–71 tour Illingworth was aghast and then furious after his manager...
The unspectacular Yorkshire bowler digging in to keep his side in the hunt for the County Championship title was a self-contained moment of pure theatreSexual Chocolate. Shirley Temple, Sideshow Bob. Stringfellow. Ryan Sidebottom seems to be one of those people who just attracts nicknames, the kind of man who looks like he gets clapped on the shoulder a lot, bear-hugged by acquaintances, bantered at by passing stag-dos when he appears on a crowded railway station, head bobbing above the heads, unmistakably that guy. Related: County cricket: three-way title race goes to the final day – live! Related: Ian Bell’s Warwickshire need seven Lancashire wickets to stay in Division One Continue reading...