By JMB
March 20 2007

In the fourth Regan Responds interview, Yorkshire Chief Executive, Stewart Regan talks about cricket matters and more. In the first of two parts, I started with questions about the recent weeks which have seen a tremendous turnaround in the club’s affairs with the arrivals of Gough and Moxon...

the promotion of Ian Dews and Anthony McGrath’s decision to remain aYorkshire player.

 

How exciting have the last few weeks been for you?

 

I think it was more satisfying than exciting. I think it is really exciting, but the board have worked incredibly hard behind the scenes, put in a lot of hours and it’s really nice to see a plan coming together. The partnership that we’ve ended up with is probably the most exciting we’ve had for a long time - Gough and Moxon, captain and Director of Professional Cricket, both very different characters and potentially a very good complementary partnership. I think it’s going to be great for Yorkshire cricket and we’re really looking forward to it.

 

And that’s the end of the signings now?

 

(Laughs) I think last time I told you that was it and then we went out and got Darren. We were interested in Darren and we only found out that he’d not signed his contract with Essex quite late on in the process and we decided he would be a great foil for Director of Professional Cricket. I think it’s fair to say that we’re pretty keen we start the season with the squad that we’ve got and all of the guys are up for it and we’re in good shape.

 

How long did it take to agree that Martyn Moxon was the right man?

 

Martyn’s name cropped up quite early on in the process, but at the time he was on a three-year contract and we didn’t think we had any chance at all of (a) being able to get Martyn and (b) if we had too pay compensation for that type of contract we wouldn’t be able to afford it as a club. As it a happened when we put our vacancy notice in the papers and on the ECB website, Martyn was one of the people that contacted the club and we got into conversation with him and realised that he had a six-month notice period. That changed the whole landscape and he was very much back on the radar screen.

He was up against some very high profile candidates and he scored very highly and came across very well when we interviewed him. I think what swung it was, not just the fact that he’s a Yorkshire guy with a knowledge of the club, we’ve been criticised for not being able to develop players to international standard – we’re very good at getting them through from the Academy to the squad, but thereafter we’ve been criticised for not getting them able to make the final leap. Martyn is a proven operator. You’ve only got to look at what he’s done with Durham. When I was growing up in Durham it was a minor county. He’s turned a small county in comparison to Yorkshire into a major player, kept them in the 1^st Division and developed the likes of Harmison, Plunkett, Collingwood and Graham Onions more recently. He’s a top quality coach and a really nice guy into the bargain.

The players’ reaction to him on the day we went up to Leeds Met was just fantastic. You couldn’t have asked for a better reception and he’s really enjoying it.

 

Can you disclose the third person on the D of C shortlist with Moxon and Donald?

 

No, I don’t think it would be fair to do that. We had a lot of applicants for the job. Some of who were under confidentiality because of their existing positions and on that basis I don’t think it’s fair to say who the other candidate was. We had some of the best coaches in this country and around the world interested in this job and it says a hell of a lot about what we think of Martyn Moxon that he got this position.

 

I think people were pleased that Allan Donald said he wanted the role and I know people on The Corridor have wished him well.

 

Allan is really keen to get into a high profile coaching position, ideally in county cricket in England. I don’t think it’s surprising that the view of South African cricket by many isn’t a particularly good one at the moment. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the quota system which operates in South Africa. Jacques Rudolph has been a victim of that quota system and that was one of his reasons for wanting to come to Yorkshire. I think Allan is looking to get a fresh start in a coaching or managerial position and it doesn’t come much bigger than Yorkshire. Unfortunately for him he didn’t get the role. He was interviewed by the club in South Africa and was very impressive. We spent a lot of time talking to him and he had some very strong views. He’s a nice guy, intelligent, articulate, keen as mustard to come to Yorkshire. When we compared him to Martyn, we felt that Martyn could hit the ground running. He knows the club and knows the people.

When we started considering the captain / Director of Professional Cricket relationship we realised that was key and we needed the right individuals. When we decided we were going to bring Gough we felt that Martyn would be the perfect foil for him. They are both from Monk Bretton in Barnsley, both Yorkshire lads, Martyn gave Darren his cap and gave him his chance when he was captain of Yorkshire, so they do go back a long way and there is mutual respect there.

 

I picked that up when I interviewed them – they both speak very well of each other.

 

Yeah, they do, and that rubs off on the players and that is so important, we felt that Martyn was undoubtedly the best guy to take the club forward.

 

Has the necessary paperwork for Rudolph's Kolpak clearance been received by the ECB yet and are there any issues still to overcome?

 

The ECB were meeting yesterday (15^th March) to discuss the registration. Jacques had to sign a Kolpak declaration, which is an Annex in the regulations, and he signed that. It then transpired that the ECB and the PCA were not happy with that because of a statement that had been made by Cricket South Africa in which they claimed that Jacques had said that it would make him a better player for when he returned to South Africa. We then got a letter from Jacques, addressed to the ECB, saying that press release had been issued without his knowledge, he had no input into it, didn’t know when it was going to be released, what it was going to say and he was very keen to stress through the letter that he was focussing on coming to Yorkshire, committing himself to the club for three-years and who knows what would happen after that.

Again, the ECB were not prepared to accept that letter and they asked for a sworn affidavit from Jacques to give a confirmed position that he has no intention of playing for South Africa, or first class domestic cricket in South Africa . He signed the sworn affidavit, he had no issue with it and was keen to stress that he was putting all of his focus on coming to Yorkshire. The registration has therefore gone into the ECB with the affidavit attached and having satisfied everything that the ECB have asked us to do I am just hoping that we can get clearance.

 

Would you have still signed Rudolph if you had known that everything else, including Anthony McGrath staying, was going to fall into place?

 

It’s a difficult one to answer because we didn’t know those things at the time and hindsight’s a wonderful thing. We lost two key players in Darren Lehmann and Michael Lumb and we thought we were going to lose a third in Anthony McGrath. We signed Jacques as cover to play at the top end of the order to play alongside Younus Khan and Matthew Elliott in the first few weeks of the season.

I still think that we’ve ended up in a very good position in that we’ve got two replacements for two losses, but had we had the knowledge that McGrath was going to stay we might have decided to elevate the likes of Gale or Sayers and play them from the outset. You’ve got to work with the knowledge that you’ve got. If you look at Yorkshire now and the squad we’ve got, you’ve got to say that we’ve got one of the strongest squads in the country. Down at The Oval we might have eight or nine internationals talking the field against Surrey and we will have a very impressive team.

 

Are you prepared to make what we all hope is a very difficult decision at the end of the season - Gillespie or Younus?

 

We’ll have to make that decision. It’s an ECB regulation that we will go down to one overseas player. The club will look at how this season pans out. Martyn will ultimately have the final say on how that transpires. It’s going to be a hard call and we will need to decide whether we go for a bowler or a batsman. It will depend on how this squad gels and how the emerging talent performs. It’s not going to be easy that one.

It’s a great position to be in, you talk to some of the young lads and they are all saying that, as much as it is preventing them from getting an automatic place, the chance to be in the dressing room and on the same pitch as Gillespie, Younus, Rudolph, Elliott, Gough, McGrath is fantastic. The young lads will learn so much. It’s part of their personal development. It’s not just about them being able to play on the field, it’s about being around these people, being next to them. To listen to them talk about the game and their careers.

If you speak to the slightly older up and coming players like Steve Patterson, Andrew Gale and Joe Sayers, they realise that they’ve still got a fantastic career ahead of them and at this stage it is about absorbing and soaking up as much information and support as they can get. To have Gough, Moxon, Khan, Gillespie, Rudolph all in the same dressing room, and then add in White and McGrath you can’t buy that as a young player. That’s before you add in the coaching staff so it really is a great place for young people to learn and they will get their chances. We’re not going to be able to play the same team all season. There will be injuries, international call ups and periods where people need a rest and I think the young lads will definitely get a chance.

 

When will Dizzy, Elliott and Jakes be joining up with the squad?

 

Early April (the first or second week) certainly for Dizzy and Matt Elliott. Jakes is looking to get absolute confirmation that his contract is going to be released and we’ve talked about 11^th April – he won’t be here for the friendly against Derbyshire, but hopefully he will be here for the start of the season.

 

(Note: Shortly after the interview Ireland beat Pakistan in the World Cup which means that Younus Khan will be joining Yorkshire earlier than anticipated and will be available for the first game of the season at Surrey.)

 

What will your opening line be to Chris Adams when he comes to Headingley in June?

 

As far as Chris is concerned there are no hard feelings from me. It will be ‘welcome back to Headingley, I think we’ve got a cracking match ahead of us and we’re looking to take all of the points’. Personally I’ve got nothing against Chris. He actually rang me last week and I had a long chat with him and we talked about how things had developed over the last few months, so I certainly don’t think we’ll be sending any bears to fight him in the middle of the pitch (laughs).

Now things are more settled, what are your hopes for 2007 and do they realistically include trophies and a holiday for you?

 

On the latter point I’m trying to squeeze in a week or ten days away in August between the Lancashire and Warwickshire matches when we’ve not got a great deal happening at Headingley.

 

As far as the first bit of the question is concerned, if you’d asked me three months ago, all we were interested in at that point was sending out a competitive team and staying in the 1^st Division and anything else would have been a bonus. Three months on, I think it’s a very different scenario. We are certainly capable of competing. Whether we are capable of winning trophies, only time will tell, as it is not just about having individuals who perform, it’s about having a team that can play together. We will be bringing a lot of people from different parts of the world who will be playing together for the first time and that team needs to gel. If the players from abroad can get on with the lads as well as the lads have got on with each other over the last couple of weeks then we could really be up there challenging for honours, and I hope we do as it will be great for Yorkshire.

 

Darren Lehmann is reported to want to come back to YCCC in 2008 to help develop the next generation and work alongside Moxon! Is there a free role or could one be made to bring him back and has he discussed this with the club?

 

I’ve spoken to Darren a few times since he left last year. We’ve talked about what he’s doing in Australia. He’s got a couple of jobs working outside of cricket, doing an ambassadorial job for the South Australian Cricket Board in India, which is really exciting, and he’s also working as an ambassador for Fosters lager, I think, which is right up his street (laughs). He does harbour ambitions to come back to Yorkshire in the future. We said to him that the club were keen to get on and make appointments now because we needed a change of leadership style and we needed a new structure in place. As far as the future is concerned who knows. We’ve got an enormous amount of respect for Darren Lehmann. He’s setting up his own Academy in Adelaide for young players, batsmen in particular. I’m sure we’ll keep in touch with him and who knows what might happen.

Part Two to follow - Stewart discusses the future ground developments, cricket as a business and reveals whether he has contracted the cricket bug yet...