Yorkshire delay T20 plans as they wait on Starc

By Graham Hardcastle

Yorkshire are still working on finalising their overseas player plans for the forthcoming Friends Life t20 campaign. The White Rose hierarchy are yet to find out how long they will have Australian Mitchell Starc for, while they are also exploring options with regards to adding a second signing to their squad.

There is ongoing dialogue between Headingley bosses and their counterparts at Cricket Australia over fast bowler Starc’s availability, seeing as he has been selected for Australia’a A tour, which runs between July 27 and August 17.

It is not yet known whether the left-armer will have to return to Australia beforehand for a training camp, while Yorkshire are keen for him to be allowed to play for them during the tour if he is not selected by Australia.

The tour consists of two three-day matches against Durham and Derbyshire and two four-day matches against the England Lions at Edgbaston and Old Trafford. Australia’s 17-man party includes fellow fast bowlers James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson, Patrick Cummins and Ben Cutting, the Queenslander who had to pull out of the squad for the Gabba Test against New Zealand last December due to injury.

“We're just waiting on Australia to see exactly what's going on with their A tour. The bottom line is that we're trying to get Mitchell for as many games as we can,” said Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale. “I think he'll probably be here for the first part of Twenty20 at least.

“They are bringing a massive squad over, and there's no point him carrying drinks for them if he can play for us. He'll get more experience playing for us than he would playing for Australia A. That's my opinion.

“There's games against Durham and Derby, and I know they won't put their strongest team out against Australia A, certainly not in July and August when there’s a lot of cricket to be played in the three competitions. They'll be resting their better players. Surely he'd be better playing for us against full strength teams, which is tough, hard cricket.”

Yorkshire, who face Bradford League side Cleckheaton in a 20-over warm-up match next Wednesday, have kept their counsel with regards to a second overseas signing: “We’ll make an announcement about that shortly as to whether we are or whether we’re not,” said Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket. “We’ve been doing a bit of work on it, but there’s nothing definite. It’s difficult knowing when people will definitely be available.”


Date: 05/06/2012 14:37:12 by Graham Hardcastle
In: Yorkshire | Today |