Kane Williamson

By Gary Watton
March 30 2015

Yorkshire County Cricket Club have cobbled together no fewer than four different international cricketers, who between them will assume the role of overseas cricketer this forthcoming season. The increase in an already congested global cricket calendar is rendering it more difficult to recruit someone for a whole summer's duration, unless the person in question has no IPL or test commitments.

As a consequence, the musical chairs at Yorkshire consists of Pakistan's Younus Ahmed returning to the county where he will keep the seat warm until Aaron Finch arrives after his IPL travails. The lethal Finchy will be joined for our Twenty20 campaign by his fellow Aussie, the red-hot Glenn Maxwell. The county's pursuit of Twenty20 glory will be lacking little, with these two box office heavyweights plying their skills in mid-summer. Then at the end of August, the in-form Kane Williamson will take his leave of representing New Zealand [recently with distinction] and assist Yorkshire with their last four County Championship outings, as the county heads towards a possible second chequered flag in consecutive years.

This merry-go-round might represent instability, in some eyes, but it's actually a case of glass half full, as each 'star' will be keen to hit the ground running in their short stay, so as to earn their well-remunerated salary and justify their selection.

My only concern is with the ageing Younus Ahmed. Peculiarly, our Asian imports have not been huge successes for Yorkshire, including Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Inzamam Ul-Haq. Here's hoping that Ahmed will buck the trend. He will need to contribute enormously during a time of the season when no fewer than Ballance, Lyth, Root, and Bairstow [and the all-rounder Rashid] are all otherwise engaged. One hopes that Leaning and Lees will both step up to the plate in their absence. Failing that, it will take the upgraded Will Rhodes to carry the batting burden alongside the returning captain, Andrew Gale, and the useful mid-order custodians of Bresnan and Hodd.

Yorkshire are now victims of their own success, as the county will now have to demonstrate its strength in depth, and we we will get to see what some of our talented young bucks are made of. It all makes for an exciting season. One thing is for sure. The imported players need to make their mark to ensure that we remain ahead of the chasing pack.