Hope springs eternal for Yorkshire CCC but Ottis Gibson’s feet are firmly on the ground

Thirteen of them said that Yorkshire will get promoted, way ahead of Durham and Gloucestershire, the next best-backed with six votes apiece.

Adam Lyth was tipped as the division’s top run-scorer (four votes) and Ben Coad (three votes) jointly-favoured along with Durham’s Matthew Potts to be the division’s top wicket-taker.

In addition, Shan Masood (three votes) was backed to have the biggest impact of an overseas player in Division Two, showing how well regarded Yorkshire are among their peers as well as with the bookmakers, most of whom have them overwhelming favourites to bounce straight back after relegation last season.

Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, said that it was gratifying that his team are so well thought-of but he is not allowing himself to get carried away.

“First of all, I wouldn’t know about the betting side of things, because I don’t bet,” he said. “I don’t read too much into things like that.

“Of course, it’s nice for people (the captains) to be saying those things, but we know that the game is played out on the grass, and we’ve got to go out on the grass and really play the way we want to play and win games of cricket.

“I guess if you look at the squad that we have, I’d be saying the same thing and backing us to do well. Looking at that squad, we should have a good season, but we still have to go out there and perform.”

With uncertainty over possible points penalties due to the racism crisis, which could yet result in a case of “all bets off”, it would be a brave man who put his life savings on Yorkshire to win promotion due to that fact.

Either way, Gibson’s feet are firmly on the ground and he batted off suggestions that Yorkshire will be expected to hit the ground running with a victory against Leicestershire, who are equally well-favoured – albeit, in their case, to claim the wooden spoon.

“We expect to have four good days of cricket, and then hopefully at the end of those four good days of cricket we’ve done well enough to win,” said Gibson, whose side begin their campaign against Leicestershire at Headingley on Thursday.

“I don’t think we’ll start expecting to win; we start expecting to play well, and if we play well enough to win, then so be it.”

Gibson, who played for Leicestershire in 2004 and 2005, believes that Yorkshire have no divine right to go straight back up.

They lost six of their last eight games in 2022 - a wretched run that got what it deserved - and they have not won a Championship game since the opening round last year, when they defeated Gloucestershire in Gibson’s first fixture in charge.

“Teams don’t just go down and automatically come straight back up,” he added.

“It would be wrong to expect that we will come straight back up.

“That’s what we want to do, of course it is, but we know that we have to play really well and we have to be a positive team if we’re going to try and get results in the Second Division.

“We absolutely want to get out of it at the first attempt, but we also have to make sure that our mentality is right and we don’t think that we can just take things for granted because there’s still some good teams around.

“I think all the teams are strong, there’ll be a lot of result pitches, I’m sure, and we must make sure that we come out on the right end of those results.”

Yorkshire have been boosted by the arrival on a short-term basis of Shai Hope, the West Indies batsman who has signed for the first three matches as cover for Masood.

If Masood is to have the biggest impact of an overseas player in Division Two, he will have to do it despite missing just over the first-quarter of the Championship season, having been named in Pakistan’s white-ball squads for series against New Zealand that run from April 14 to May 7. It never rains but it pours as far as overseas signings are concerned...

Yorkshire welcome back Dawid Malan after his winter with England, the left-hander a key figure especially with fellow international stars Joe Root and Harry Brook (both IPL) unavailable and with Jonny Bairstow still recovering from a broken leg.

“Malan is available and having him will almost feel like having an overseas player, because we haven’t had him for so long,” said Gibson. “He’s had a brilliant winter for England, making hundreds, and he will obviously add great value to our batting line-up.”

Jonny Tattersall will captain in Masood’s absence if he comes through a fitness test on a finger injury.

Yorkshire (from): Bean, Bess, Coad, Duke, Edwards, Hill, Hope, Lyth, Malan, Mike, Milnes, Revis, Tattersall (captain), Thompson, Wharton.