Tykes facing a test of strength

Yorkshire are as well prepared physically and mentally as they have ever been for the challenges which lie ahead but whether they have the all-round strength to make up for last year's disasters remains to be seen.

Morale and discipline within the camp could not be higher but neither of these qualities count for much without talent and Yorkshire will need to shine much brighter than in the summer of 2004 if they are to achieve their twin aims of promotion in the Championship and totesport League.

It is easy to forget that Yorkshire performed quite well until almost the end of June last year when they were sitting fourth in Division Two of the Championship and on top of the table in Division Two of the totesport League.

Then captain Craig White went down injured, followed by Chris Silverwood and other fast bowlers, and come September, Yorkshire did not look as if they could knock the skin off a rice pudding.

The unexpected departure of Steve Kirby to Gloucestershire as soon as the season had ended further depleted Yorkshire's fast bowling resources, but director of cricket David Byas has acted to strengthen the squad by signing left-arm paceman David Lucas from Nottinghamshire and right-arm quickie Deon Kruis from South Africa.

When Matthew Hoggard is away on England duty -- which will be for most of the summer -- Yorkshire's most lethal fast bowler should once again be Silverwood and it is essential both for himself and the county that he remains injury-free this time.

Just turned 30, Silverwood should still be at the peak of his powers now that repair work has been done on his dodgy ankle but he if continues to break down regularly then his future could be in some doubt.

With Hoggard in the early part of the season backed up by Silverwood, plus a choice from Kruis, White, Ian Harvey, John Blain, Tim Bresnan and Nick Thornicroft, Yorkshire are certainly not short of fast bowling options, but the big question has got to be whether they can form an effective unit which is capable of bowling sides out twice.

Blain has already shown himself to be a good signing but still needs to improve on his 30 wickets of last season while much more is demanded this time of Australian all-rounder Ian Harvey.

Kruis is still a relatively unknown quantity but his domestic record in South Africa suggests he is well capable of doing a good job and it is now time that both Bresnan and Thornicroft do something with the potential which led them to become England Under-19s players.

Bresnan is the more experienced of the two and his progress last season was steady rather than spectacular but it should be remembered that he only reached his 20th birthday in February and cannot yet be pushed too hard or too far.

Also working hard for a place at some stage will be 19-year-old Ajmal Shazad who learned his cricket at Windhill and last May became the first Yorkshire-born player from an ethnic background to turn out for the county. Ajmal is now a part of the Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence squad and any impressive early season performances there will certainly be noted by Yorkshire and acted upon.

Although Yorkshire's bowling let them down last summer, the batsmen generally fared better and there were some promising performances from three other youngsters in Joe Sayers, Richard Pyrah and Andrew Gale.

Sayers, now free from his studies at Oxford University, has the right pedigree to become an England player in the not too distant future and his first-class career with Yorkshire could not have got off to a much better start in the closing weeks of last season with a half-century in each of the last three matches and opening stands with Phil Jaques of 162 and 69 against Somerset and 171 against Glamorgan.

Jaques, Yorkshire's only batsman to top 1,000 runs in 2004, still seems as hungry as ever, having made two double centuries this winter for New South Wales, and both Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath will have every intention of reaching the four-figure mark during the course of the summer.

Michael Lumb seems to have got over the disappointments of last season and it will surprise me if the left-hander is not once again a force to be reckoned with and don't forget the tall and strongly built Chris Taylor who has strengthened his claims for a first-team place with a phenomenal winter playing grade cricket in Australia.

Richard Dawson will have an even wiser head on his shoulders following his gruelling tour of Sri Lanka with England 'A' and it will be a double boost for Yorkshire if he can add to the 36 wickets which made him the county's most successful bowler last season as well as scoring plenty of runs.

Yorkshire have high hopes for their leg-spinner, Mark Lawson, who toured India with England U19s during the winter, while Ismail Dawood looks set to hold on to the wicket-keeping gloves which he took off Simon Guy in the middle of last season. He also shown that he is capable of saving and winning matches with the bat.

Promotion in the end will depend upon the strength of the bowling but even a small all-round improvement should be enough to bring them a double promotion, bearing in mind that a couple more wins in the Championship and just one more victory in the totesport League last season would have seen them in the top-flights this summer.

Updated: 09:28 Saturday, April 09, 2005