Stewart Regan

I'll start you off with a nice easy question you must be getting tired of answering by now. How’s the search for the new captain and head of professional cricket going?

 

We’re still doing a lot of work behind the scenes, talking to lots of people, and having lots of discussions. What we want to make sure that we don’t do is knee-jerk into making an appointment just for the sake of it and just because there’s a vacancy. We want to make sure we get the right person so we’re taking our time. We’ve had an awful lot of interest from home and abroad in the coaching opportunity, which is very exciting for the club. From a captaincy point of view we have three options really – we go for an English captain and unfortunately there aren’t that many around at the moment as most of the good guys are signed up to a club already, we go for an overseas captain or a captain within the club.

 

It’s been reported recently (on your site as I was looking at it the other day) that I’d passed some comment that Younis Khan was going to be considered again for captain. I don’t know where that’s come from as that’s not the case.

 

That came originally from the BBC site.

 

Well I don’t know where they picked that up from because I’ve said all along that I want a captain in place at the start of the season and Younis is not going to be here until probably the first week in May, and therefore that rules him out in my reckoning. If I was a betting man I would probably say that we’d end up with an overseas captain, because that seems to be where our options are pointing at the moment.

 

And that would have to be someone not involved in the World Cup then?

 

Yes it would – and there are the other two options out there. Our options are limited largely because we’ve already made progress in signing overseas players. We haven’t signed the second one yet, but we’ve pretty well made up our minds who that is going to be and in terms of captaincy we’re looking at that second overseas player, or potentially (a real wild card) a Kolpak player. I’ve said in previous interviews that this wouldn’t be my preferred route, but unfortunately in the situation the club finds itself in we are still exploring that as another avenue.

 

Some people are speculating in the press that David Byas might still be in contention for reinstatement in the coaching role. Is that something you’d consider?

 

No I’ve said again categorically on a number of occasions that we are sticking with the structure that we announced at the time when Chris Adams was joining the club. We think that structure can work with a Director of Professional cricket and a separate cricket development role who would oversee the running of the professional side of the game, liaise with the ECB, manage cricket policy, procedures and guidelines, link with the Yorkshire Cricket Board, schools cricket, junior cricket and club cricket. So we are going down that route and David won’t be involved with the professional squad in a coaching capacity next season.

 

And are there any indications whether David has accepted the new role?

 

The chairman and I are meeting up with David later on today for a chat and we’ll see how it goes.

 

Is his reason for not committing himself because he wants to see what happens elsewhere first?

 

I think there are a whole host of reasons if I’m honest. They are largely personal reasons linked to the job that we have talked to him about which I think he feels is not as large a job as he had previously. Perhaps he feels the gloss has been taken off the role that he had at the club and he’s taking time to come to terms with that. As I say we’re seeing him later on today and then hopefully we can make some announcements.

 

The next question was going to be at what stage do you start to panic or do you feel that the existing squad plus Younis can still be successful. You seem confident though that there will be other new faces in 2007?

 

I’m very, very confident that we will have new faces at Headingley Carnegie next season and that we will be announcing some of those hopefully in the next few weeks. I think we need quite a strong spine of players in the club. By that I mean senior players who can act not just in a mentoring capacity for some of the younger lads, but obviously because of their experience and theire playing background they can add value to the team as well. We’ve got a number of those already in the squad. Craig White will be a key player next season. Matthew Wood, as much as he didn’t particularly feature in the first team at the back end of last season will be staking a claim for a recall to the first team. Depending upon what happens with Anthony McGrath we could have him and people like Joe Sayers, Andrew Gale staking a claim too. Around the spine of the team you build your younger guys. Included in the spine I’d probably include Tim Bresnan and Deon Kruis, who will be back in a bowling capacity so there will be opportunity for Adil and Lawson and those guys to slot in around them.

 

So we’ve got options and I’ve said recently that out of every cloud there is a silver lining and I think people should think twice before writing us off. It’s often times like this when the young guys get the chance that they get the bit between their teeth and really go for it. I think we could surprise a few people next season.

 

It’s the Alan Hansen you can’t win anything with kids comment – that came back to bit him didn’t it?

 

That’s right. I’m still a believer in a team that’s made up entirely of kids lacks the experience and strategic insight to be able to win things. So what we need is a blend of youth and experience and we need to make sure we have the right people in the right roles. Now, Younis Khan will be a fantastic role model for the club. He will be a fantastic experienced batsman playing at the top end of the order (probably 3 or 4) and we will be expecting great things from him. He will add a number of aspects to our team, particularly in the dressing room with his vision and his ability to motivate. I think he will be a great supporting act for our new captain and that will be really helpful.

 

So I think we will have a good blend and we might surprise a few people next summer. I’m not saying that we will be coming out fighting for honours, but we will certainly be doing our best to win games and I don’t think we should be written off just yet.

 

You’ve signed Younis for one year initially. Is there a possibility of extending that?

 

Absolutely yes. We’re really keeping our options open and we’d like to think that if it works out for him, and subject to Pakistan’s international commitments in 2008, we would have a chance to extend. We couldn’t sign him on a long contract because of the lack of knowledge of Pakistan’s detailed cricket commitments.

 

I’ve noticed that any article we put on the site mentioning Younis Khan receives a lot of hits from overseas, and when I spoke to Ian Bishop he said the same was true for the official site. So he’s good from all angles…

 

He is. We’re getting quite a lot of interest from businesses wanting to speak to him about sponsorship and The Asian Business Development Network who are working with is to secure funding for Younis are very excited about the prospect. He’s a massive name and he’s the sort of guy that has people circling his car whenever he parks and pulls up in town and gets out and goes to a restaurant. I think he’s going to be great for the club, he’s going to bring people from the Asian community into Headingley Carnegie, hopefully sell us some extra memberships, certainly sell us more merchandise in the shop and I think he will be perfect for the club – he’s exactly what we need at this point.

 

One thing that we will be making a little bit of noise about is the spelling of Younis Khan. Everywhere that I look, including on Younis’ own website it is spelt Younis. When I’ve spoken to him I’ve asked him to clarify it as he’s spelt it Younus on his text messages and emails. His full name is Mohammad Younus Khan so we are going to make a little bit of that when he gets over here.

 

I’ll have to change the way I spell it on the site from now on

 

Well I did a Google search over the weekend. If you find Pakistan websites they all spell his name Younus. It’s the English sites that spell it differently.

 

You’ve covered the next question to an extent already but I noticed that Middlesex said recently that they have been inundated with applicants for their coaching role. The question was going to be why haven’t we had the same level of interest, but you say we have?

 

We have. We’ve had some very big names from the world of cricket that have approached the club and that’s before we’ve actually gone out to the market properly. The way that we’ll handle it I suspect (and we’ve got a Board discussion on it later this week) is a formal advert in one of the national newspapers, plus in the cricket press as well and then we’ll go through a formal recruitment and interview process to make sure that we’ll get the best possible person for the job. Already we have had international coaches of the highest esteem contacting the club wanting to find out more details.

 

So what you are saying is that if I were to apply with my level 1 coaching certificate I’d not stand a chance?

 

(laughs) You could apply but you might not get through the first stage filtering process.

 

Why is it difficult to bring in quality players from other counties? Is it just issues about players being signed up elsewhere or has anyone actually turned us down?

 

It’s the former point really. Because of the Adams situation it set us back a couple of months. Normally you would be having conversations with clubs about getting players from other counties at the end of the season. The role of captain would be the single biggest role that we would deal with and outside of that we had our eyes on the overseas players we wanted and I was quite happy that we had a squad of players around those roles that could do a job. What I don’t want to do is go out and bring players in from other counties who are no better than what we have already and in our academy. We’ve got some fantastic talent. I believe the young talent we’ve got is the best it’s been for fifteen years. That’s not just me saying that but people who’ve been around the club a long time who are saying that some of the guys that we’ve got coming through are exceptional. I don’t want to block spaces by bringing in journeymen players from other counties for the sake of it. We haven’t actually gone after a great deal of English players because we believe in our own lads coming up.

 

What we do want, and there’s an interesting debate around how do you develop a young player? Do you do it by giving him the chance to play in the first team and let him play with other first team players, or do you bring in one or two superstars who are going to raise the bar and in doing so expose the young players to international superstars. Then you are into the debate about one overseas player or two and you can argue it very strongly from both sides. We supported the principle of going down to one overseas player with the ECB, but in reality I think overseas players have done quite a bit for the game because they’ve given our guys the chance to play against quality, world class opposition.

 

It reminds me of what they said about Beckham seeing Cantona spending hours on the training pitch and copying him.

 

That’s right. You are not just talking about their technical ability - you are talking about their all round ability, their mental preparation, their attitude, focus, commitment, determination and desire to win. These are all things you link with a world class player. What I want here is one or two world class players that everyone learns from. Someone like Younus coming in - the Lythe’s and Gale’s of this world will learn so much from him and I just hope it pays dividends.

 

For the next question you may need to get comfy. Are you aware of a consistent thread in the reasons given for the departures of Goughm Sudebottom, Silverwood, Lumb and Mags. Unlike football everyone in cricket tends to be so gentlemanly in their public utterances. While that is a good thing it does make it frustrating for fans if we have to wait decades for somebody to reveal all in their memoirs. Apart from anything else, it makes it impossible for fans to press for issues to be addressed as we don’t know what they are. And don’t let him get away with saying there isn’t an underlying reason – with so many defections there simply has to be one.

 

(laughs) What was the start of the question again … It’d difficult for me to comment on everything that’s gone on over the last few years because I’ve only been here since March, but I think there is an underlying thread that relates to the relationship between the players and the coaching and management staff. What I think we lack is a single team mentality. By that I mean a one Yorkshire for want of a better expression. Whether you’re office, in the marketing department, the finance department, a coach, the guy that looks after the dressing rooms – you are all part of one team – or you should be. You should all be part of the same goals, vision and objectives. What I’ve season last season and what I’ve picked up from the past that has not been the case. A lot of people had their own political and personal agendas which causes friction. The players have been affected and it hasn’t been healthy. It’s something we’ve had to address.

 

Can we use Anthony McGrath’s desire to join Lancashire to get a swap deal for Cork or Chapple?

 

Anthony has two years and three seasons left on his contract. The club have not breached that contract, in fact we’ve gone out of our way to satisfy his concerns. The ball is in his court. If he wishes to leave us he breaks his contract and will have to buy himself out which could be a very costly and drawn out process. The other option is for another club to buy out Anthony’s contract, but that would involve an illegal approach from another club to someone in a contract with Yorkshire. There may be conversations going on in the background.

 

From you recent comments and those you’ve said today can we cross Jason Gillespie off the list for 2007? Are you consideringa move for an overseas all rounder? Any clues?

 

I’m not prepared to go into details of who we are considering at the moment. There are a lot of things going on and we are assessing costs and players agents so it wouldn’t be right to mention any names at this stage. Whilst restricted to two overseas players we can look at the Kolpak option.

 

Are the youngsters ready to fill the gaps?

 

You just have to look at what Adil Rashid did last season where he stepped into the breach to basically fill a batting role and he stood up and performed with the bat and the ball. You look at other counties and the experience that they give to their youngsters. Alistair Cook is the same age as Andrew Gale but Cook was given his chance and played a lot more first class cricket for Essex and has gone on to the full England side. If a player is ready he should be given a chance. It’s all about performance – if you’ve got a Wayne Rooney throw him in.

 

Are we planning to bring in a new wicket keeper for next season?

 

No.

 

Can we win the County Championship in 2007?

 

If I’m honest that’s going to be difficult as we’re starting from a long way back and are desperately trying to catch up and fill the gaps. So I don’t think we’ve got a real chance of winning the Championship, but equally I don’t think people should write us off and we shouldn’t be classed as relegation fodder.

 

Do you feel that the publicity surrounding poor management at the club has meant a bad reputation on the county circuit and therefore potential targets are harder to attract?

 

There might be some truth in that. Yorkshire is a high profile county. I know people have said to me that more than one player has been awestruck when they’ve walked out on to the hallowed turf. It’s because of the size of the club and all of the history. The baggage that Yorkshire carries sometimes works against us. There’s an image that we’re riddled with internal politics and fall outs whereas we need to build on the single team mentality I mentioned earlier.

 

Matthew Hoggard’s recent heroics  must enhance Yorkshire’s image and Michael Vaughan’s recovery is good news?

 

For Hoggy it’s fantastic for him as an individual. He has been criticised, but he’s showing that he is one of the greatest bowlers in the world. He’s a very proud Yorkshireman and we’re delighted to have him on our books although we’d like to see him play for Yorkshire more, but that’s not possible due to central contracts.

 

It’s great to see Vaughanie ahead of his rehabilitation schedule. I’d like to think that he’ll be fully fit and back for the coming season and if Yorkshire can help him at all and he can play games for us then I’d be delighted.

 

What do you think of Darren Lehmann’s claim that he wants to manage England?

 

I think that was just a typical Darren Lehmann wind up - that’s his sense of humour and not surprisingly comes when England are being beaten by the Aussies. I don’t know if he has aspirations to go down that route.

 

There have been changes to the membership scheme – how is that going?

 

The early signs on membership sales are encouraging. We’ve had over 2000 members already sign up and the packages only went out recently. We’re ahead of where we were at this point last year. The most popular option is option 2 which is basically the equivalent of last season’s membership. We’re also very encouraged by the numbers taking up option 5 which includes the international matches.

 

And as far as you are concerned did you think the job would be this tough and would involve such a rollercoaster ride?

 

No I didn’t. I thought the close season would be a chance to unwind a bit but it’s been busier than ever. It’s certainly been an emotional roller coaster with incredible highs and incredible lows. The highs have been avoiding relegation, Darren’s 339, the emergence of Adil Rashid and Mark Lawson and seeing my first test match at Headingley go all five days with England clinching the series. Chris Adams decision though was an all time low for me and I include previous jobs in that. The day after he told me he wasn’t coming I was struggling, but at the end of the day I live the job. It’s a great club, there’s something differentgoing on all the time, there are fantastic people here and I’m in contact with high profile names from the world of cricket on a daily basis. I appreciate people view us from outside and winder what’s going on sometimes but I can assure everyone that the people behind the scenes at the club are fully committed to the job of making Yorkshire successful.

 

Would you do anything different if you could go back and start the job again?

 

I don’t think I would change anything. When I came here I tried to sit back and observe and assess the strengths and weaknesses here. I put quick wins in place like the new shop and the lottery, which might be seen as small fry by many people. On the bigger issues we’re starting to get to grips with them now. I’ve got a reputation for moving quickly, but I think I underestimated how difficult it would be to effect change. There’s a lot of tradition here.

 

Has there been any time when you wished you’d not taken the job?

 

Never.

 

And finally, have you sent Chris Adams a Christmas card yet?

 

(laughs) No I haven’t/ You’ve just reminded me though that I should really send him a text message to wish him a Happy Christmas from all of us here and remind him of what he’s missing out on.

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