Root rewarded for dedication to cricket

By Graham Hardcastle

Joe Root's dedication to the cricket cause was tested to the maximum on Saturday, but the highly-rated Yorkshire and England Lions opening batsman came up trumps.

With a day off from county action, Root would have been forgiven for turning his attentions to a different sport seeing as his beloved Sheffield United football team were playing Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town in the League One play-off final at Wembley.

But, instead of sitting down with the rest of his Yorkshire team-mates in front of the TV at Scarborough, he opted to go and play for Sheffield Collegiate against Doncaster Town in the Yorkshire Premier League, the club that also aided the development of former England Test captain Michael Vaughan.

It was a good job he did too. Not only did he score 93 off 114 balls and take 1-41 from 13 overs of off-spin as Collegiate won by 133 runs, but the Blades lost 8-7 on penalties to the Terriers, who are eagerly followed by Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale.

"There has been some banter flying around over the last 48 hours between Andrew Gale and Joe Root, who are Huddersfield and Sheffield United fans," explained Yorkshire stalwart Anthony McGrath. "Rooty played league cricket instead of watching it on Saturday. The rest of the lads, including Galey, watched it in Scarborough. The skipper came out on top, and I think there were a few messages flying around."

Root, whose father Matt keeps wicket for Collegiate, recently scored a century for the England Lions in the four-day match against the touring West Indians at Northampton as his career continues on an upward curve. He is arguably the next cab off the rank to replace either Andrew Strauss or Alastair Cook in England's Test team should injury strike.

"Playing for the Lions was a great experience, and it’s always nice to get runs,” said the 21-year-old right-hander, who has dropped down to the middle order for his county in 40-over cricket this summer.
 
“Hopefully I will take that into the rest of the season now and kick on and score some runs for Yorkshire. It’s always nice to represent your country and to try to put a performance in at that level.”
 

Date: 28/05/2012 09:45:40 by Graham Hardcastle
In: Yorkshire | Today |