Brooks is 
aiming to bring back the glory years

The Yorkshire pace bowler feels it could be the catalyst for sustained success after years of frustration for the White Rose county.

Yorkshire have gone the longest of the 18 counties without winning a league or a cup competition.

It was back in 2002 that they last won silverware – the now obsolete Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.

Ahead of today’s Royal London One-Day Cup game against Essex at Scarborough (10.30am start), Brooks spoke positively about what the club can achieve in the short term.

“I think that if we win a Championship or a trophy this year, we could quite easily go on and win three, four, five trophies in a few years,” he said.

“If you look at the teams that have been successful over the years, it’s often been that first trophy that has got things rolling and taught them how to get over the line.

“Durham last year were a case in point.

“In other circumstances, you probably wouldn’t have seen them win the Championship last summer.

“But they’d won it on a couple of occasions in recent years and it served them well in the last few games.

“They got themselves on a roll and ended up steamrollering it in all honesty.

“The key thing was they knew how to get over the line because they’d done it a few times before. I honestly think that if we could win a trophy this year, it could have the same effect on us.”

Yorkshire are well-placed to end their long drought as they go into the final month-and-a-half of the season.

They are five points clear at the top of the County Championship with four games to play, the first of them against Sussex at Scarborough from Friday.

And they are top of Group A in the Royal London One-Day Cup after four wins from their first five matches, with one more victory from their last three games set to secure a knockout place.

Although Yorkshire were disappointed not to make the knockout stages of the T20 Blast, they have had another good season up to now and still have a chance of completing the ‘double’.

“It’s an exciting time,” said Brooks.

“That’s why I joined the club from Northants because I want to compete and win trophies with Yorkshire.

“We knew coming into the season that we could compete in all three competitions and definitely win something with the squad that we’ve got.

“Obviously it doesn’t help with losing players to England and the non-availability of overseas players at various times, but we’ve got a lot of strength in depth.

“The bottom line, though, is that it’s down to us players to deliver.

“It’s a very confident changing room at the minute and we’re looking forward to the last few weeks.

“Hopefully, we can bring the glory days back to the county, which are a little bit overdue, and win some silverware.

“It certainly won’t be for the want of trying and we’re determined to give it a really good go.”

Yorkshire go into today’s game on the back of three successive wins in the one-day cup.

After winning their first game at Lancashire and surprisingly losing at home to Gloucestershire, Yorkshire have beaten Northamptonshire (A), Worcestershire (H) and Leicestershire (A).

The victory at Leicester was particularly impressive, for it was a game that Yorkshire could easily lost.

Having been 27-2 off 11 overs in reply to 236-8, Yorkshire were left to score another 164 from 21 overs in a difficult Duckworth-Lewis revised target, but they chased it down with three wickets and three balls to spare.

“That was one of the better victories you’ll see in this form of the game,” said Yorkshire first-team coach Jason Gillespie.

“We identified it as a big week and one where we could impact strongly on the competition and, fortunately, we did that.

“We did a bit of soul-searching after the T20 and our 50-over loss to Gloucester.

“We had some good honest discussions and chats, and the boys have knuckled down and played some wonderful cricket.”

Gillespie paid tribute to Andrew Hodd, who won the game at Grace Road with an unbeaten 69 from 43 balls.

The 30-year-old, who is standing in for first-choice wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow while he is on England Lions’ duty, showed that he could potentially play as a specialist batsman once Bairstow returns.

“We want lads putting in performances and making our job as selectors really difficult,” said Gillespie.

“There’s certainly plenty of food for thought.

“It’s a difficult position being the back-up keeper, but Andrew has shown that his wicketkeeping is of very high class.

“Then, to come out and show what we know, that he can bat very well, with a degree of pressure on him – scoreboard pressure – he stood strong.”

Yorkshire (from): Gale (capt), Bresnan, Brooks, Fisher, Hodd, Leaning, Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Pyrah, Rashid, Williamson.