Under pressure

Those at risk must include batsmen Anthony McGrath and Matthew Wood, fast bowler Paul Hutchison and wicketkeeper Richard Blakey - with spinners James Middlebrook and Ian Fisher also under pressure to produce the goods.

Pushing hard for regular first team places at Championship level for the first time will be 20-year-old left-hander Richard Lumb, ex-Leicestershire second team batsman Scott Richardson and paceman Tom Baker.

And youngsters determined to build on occasional appearances last season include batsmen Vic Craven and Simon Widdup, fast bowlers Gary Ramsden, Greg Lambert and Chris Elstub and athletic wicketkeeper-batsman Simon Guy.

In addition, Yorkshire will be keeping a close eye on their England Under 19s off-spinner James Dawson, who finishes at Exeter University in the summer and later in the season will be challenging Middlebrook and Fisher.

Yorkshire have earned a reputation for being the most consistent side at Championship and one-day level over the past few seasons.

But too few batsmen performed well on a regular basis last year.

Supporters want to see a much greater level of consistency and are also anxious that the fast bowlers maintain their fitness better, particularly as Yorkshire may be hit even harder by ECB central contracts than they were last summer.

As was the case last season, the man who steps in to replace Martyn Moxon as director of coaching will be under severe pressure to cut down on contracts in view of Yorkshire's difficult financial situation. Money is being made even scarcer by the huge drain on their cash through interest charges on the bank overdraft acquired to pay for their share of the £10m redevelopment of Headingley.

Yorkshire simply cannot afford to hang on to players who are not reaching their full potential and many of the batsmen were guilty of not doing so last season.

It is clear that the club cannot go on relying on Australian Darren Lehmann and Michael Vaughan all the time with some help later in the order from Gavin Hamilton. It is a top priority that at least three of the batsmen in the first five get runs consistently.

A look at last season's Championship batting averages clearly illustrates the point because no-one managed to get even half way towards the brilliant Lehmann's final aggregate of 1,477 runs at an average of 67.13 - and the Tykes are likely to be without him for some of the forthcoming season after his recall to the Australian one-day team.

If he is included in the 2001 Ashes' squad then it will be a massive blow to Yorkshire.

Vaughan was his nearest challenger with 697 runs, but he is also likely to be missing large chunks of the season again because of his England duties.

In terms of natural ability, McGrath remains one of Yorkshire's outstanding batsmen but a knee injury caused him to miss the first five Championship games last season and despite a sparkling century against Kent in the penultimate match he still only scored 375 runs in 14 innings.

McGrath, 25, needs to increase his output considerably, otherwise he will be in danger from the likes of Lumb and Richardson who both rattled up the runs in the Second XI last season with 885 and 615 respectively.

South African-born Lumb is the son of former Yorkshire opener Richard and he has now completed his England qualification period which means he is free to play county cricket.

Under even greater pressure than McGrath is Huddersfield-born Wood who began last season with an unbeaten century against Derbyshire but then faded away with form which was just as disappointing as in 1999. A resounding success in his debut season of the previous year, Wood needs to make a fast comeback.

It's not only the younger players who must rack up some big scores because captain David Byas also needs to get back to something like his old form now that his benefit season is over.

Byas leads Yorkshire for a sixth successive season but he has not made a century for two years now and his 523 Championship runs at an average of 24.90 last summer needs to be vastly improved upon.

Of the front line bowlers, none needs a change in fortunes more rapidly than Hutchison, who would more likely than not be an England player by now but for his injury record.

Serious back problems, then a dislocated shoulder restricted the left-arm swing bowler to a handful of appearances over the past two seasons.

Another summer spent mainly out of action could cause Yorkshire to question whether it is financially worth keeping him, particularly if his chief rival Ryan Sidebottom, currently on the England 'A' tour of West Indies, is able to stay fit.

Blakey is the senior player on Yorkshire's books, having made his debut in 1987, but the way Guy played on being handed the gloves in the latter part of the season suggests Blakey could find it difficult to reclaim them.

Updated: 10:44 Saturday, January 20, 2001