Former Yorkshire opener Richard Lumb put in a couple of telephone calls from Johannesburg to son Michael during the Championship match against Leicestershire at Headingley last week.

But Michael was unable to answer them at the time because he was in the process of hammering out his maiden first class century for Yorkshire and thrilling the fans with the richness of his strokeplay.

Richard is due over from the family home in South Africa early next month and he will then be able to hear at first hand just how well Michael has settled into the team.

And Yorkshire, meanwhile, can congratulate themselves on giving the younger Lumb every opportunity after he decided his cricketing future should be in England rather than South Africa.

Richard and his South African-born wife, Sue, settled in Johannesburg after his Yorkshire playing days were over, but their home was still in Yorkshire when Michael was born.

His birthplace happened to be Johannesburg because Richard was playing cricket there during the English winter and Michael returned to Yorkshire with his parents when only a few days old.

But he was soon back in South Africa and as he grew up he showed that he enjoyed cricket just as much as his father and also his uncle, AJS Smith, who played for Natal during the 1970s and '80s.

Michael was good enough to be chosen by South Africa for the Under-19s World Cup in 1998 and he played a big part in helping his country make it to the semi-finals.

It was after the World Cup that he realised he had to make a decision about his future and after talking it over with his family it was agreed that he should come to England.

Yorkshire were quick to take him on and last season he was their outstanding Second XI batsman with 885 Championship runs and a career-best 191.

Because of his special circumstances, Michael's qualification period was reduced and he was allowed to play competitive cricket for the first team from this season.

Pressure on championship places restricted him to just two of the first seven matches and in the second of them he scored his maiden half-century against Northamptonshire at Headingley.

But the absence of Craig White against Leicestershire meant there was room for him to return and he made the most of his chance with a stunning 122 from 210 balls with 20 exquisite boundaries.

Lumb had hinted at the power and quality of his strokes while hitting a century off 169 balls with 14 fours and a six in Yorkshire's encounter with Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence the previous week.

Now he put them all on display again - and more besides - as he found the gaps on either side of the wicket with fiercely struck shots all beautifully timed.

Leicestershire coach Jack Birkenshaw had assisted in the coaching of Lumb at Wanderers and he could only marvel at the way in which the 21-year-old laced into bowlers of the calibre of Devon Malcolm, Phil DeFreitas and James Ormond.

"It was a first rate exhibition of batting and I certainly believe Michael has a Test career ahead of him," said Birkenshaw. "He looks one of the most exciting prospects in the country."

Michael still has some way to go to equal his dad's tally of 22 first class centuries for Yorkshire but father and son already hold an equal stake in one particular batting statistic that has only been achieved three times since the war.

Michael, Matthew Wood and Darren Lehmann each hit a century in the same innings against Leicestershire and the previous time this happened in a Championship match was against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1975, the batsmen on that occasion being Geoff Boycott, John Hampshire - and Richard Lumb.

The only other instance since the war was also against Leicestershire at Grace Road in 1947 when Len Hutton, Norman Yardley and Geoff Smithson chalked up three figures.

Ten years earlier, however, Leicestershire were again on the receiving end at Hull when Yorkshire's centurions were the celebrated Hutton, Herbert Sutcliffe and Maurice Leyland.