Yorkshire CCC confident that Mickey Edwards can reach dizzy heights

Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson revealed that Gillespie, one of his predecessors in the role at Headingley, had personally vouched for his fellow Australian.

Edwards, a fast bowler who stands 6ft 6ins, was snapped up by Yorkshire’s director of cricket Darren Gough, who revealed that he had been monitoring the player on various apps.

Early impressions have been favourable for Gibson, who believes Yorkshire could well have a nugget on their hands.

“Goughy must take the credit for the signing,” said Gibson.

“Goughy has been doing some really good scouting, and I think he’s come back with a good one in Edwards.

“He comes highly recommended by Dizzy Gillespie too, so that’s encouraging.

"He looks like a good one, for sure, and I think that he’ll do well for us this year.”

Yorkshire batted off competition to sign Edwards, who is looking forward to working with Gibson and Gough.

The 28-year-old is not considered an overseas player due to family links with the Shropshire area.

“Other counties were interested in signing him, so we’re happy that he chose us,” added Gibson. “Hopefully he will help us to win some games.

“He came to Cape Town (on our pre-season tour), and he’s different to what we’ve already got. We’ve got guys who can swing the new ball, which is great, but now we’ve got this big, tall guy who can hit the pitch hard.”

Gibson added that Yorkshire must give Edwards time to “get used to this weather”, a far cry at present from his native Sydney.

Edwards and his Yorkshire team-mates spent what should have been the first day of the County Championship match against Gloucestershire in Bristol working in the gym and in the indoor nets, with no play possible due to a wet outfield.

According to a Gloucestershire CCC statement: “We have experienced a high volume of rain over recent weeks with very few dry days and subsequently the water table is abnormally high.

"The exceedingly wet weather and strong winds over the last 48 hours has made the outfield unplayable.”

To rub salt into the wounds, Yorkshire arrived at the ground in bright sunshine only for umpires Paul Pollard and Billy Taylor to call off proceedings at 9.45am, with the forecast mixed for the rest of the match.

Adam Lyth, the stand-in Yorkshire captain, is by no means sure there will be any play, saying: “We came to the ground yesterday (Wednesday) and, I’ll be honest, looking at the way it was, I’m not confident we’re going to play at all this week.

“They’ve got the heater on at one end where the run-ups are really wet and sodden. Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see what the next few days brings weather-wise.”

Lyth and his colleagues had been hoping to get the opening round defeat to Leicestershire out of their system after a disappointing beginning to Yorkshire’s campaign.

Yorkshire conceded 389 (the fifth-highest run-chase in their history) to lose by three wickets to a team who had not won in the tournament for 19 months – one that is widely tipped for the wooden spoon.

“Things didn’t go to plan on that final day against Leicester,” admitted Lyth. “With the ball, we didn’t quite get it right.

“But I thought it was a positive week for us in the way we performed for a lot of that match. It was frustrating the result didn’t go our way, and even more frustrating that we’re stood here in glorious sunshine and we can’t get on the field.”

Lyth felt that Yorkshire should have beaten Leicestershire after scoring over 500 in their first innings - and more than 800 runs in the match all told.

As it was, the bowling was off-key and the visitors’ batting impressive.

“It was a good pitch, but had we put the ball in the right area with our attack we’d have won that game,” said Lyth.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get it right and they played well.

“Hopefully, the batters can keep that up, and we back the bowlers to be better than they were on the final day.”

Edwards would be one way for Yorkshire to shake things up in the bowling department, providing a potential point of difference as he eyes his county first-class debut.

The attack looked a bit samey last week, albeit it was only the first game and Yorkshire were without Matty Fisher, who has now recovered from a broken hand.

However, with another away trip to come hot on the heels of the Bristol fixture, as Yorkshire return south to face Sussex at Hove, they will be naturally keen to get their season up and running as quickly as possible.

For the time being, they can only reflect on what used to be one of Jason Gillespie’s favourite sayings: “You can’t control the weather.”