Chris Waters: No room for complacency as classy Yorkshire target an instant return

However, I would willingly stake a few farthings on Yorkshire winning promotion in the Championship this summer.

Okay, so I might want to claim the outlay back on Yorkshire Post expenses, just to be on the safe side, but I would be surprised if Andrew Gale’s men do not regain their First Division status at the first attempt.

There is too much quality in their ranks for them not to mount a serious challenge.

Of course, that might seem a strange prediction after a 2011 campaign in which Yorkshire floundered on all fronts.

Second-bottom of the Championship, second-bottom of their CB40 group and also-rans in the Twenty20, it was not a season to sustain any of us through the long, cold winter months.

But that was then, this is now, and Division Two is a different proposition.

Throw in a new first-team coach in Jason Gillespie and a top new batsman in the form of fellow Australian Phil Jaques, and Yorkshire will surely take some stopping.

Gillespie, who will run the first XI along with captain Gale, with director of cricket Martyn Moxon reverting to more of a supervisory role, may be untested as a county coach and not much older than some of the players.

However, he is a proven winner as a member of one of the greatest Test sides to have played the game.

And, after 10 trophy-less years, Yorkshire need all the winners they can get.

Gillespie has gained useful managerial experience with Zimbabwe franchise MidWest Rhinos and, significantly, will feel he has something to prove on the coaching front, which can only assist Yorkshire.

Jaques, 32, has nothing to prove in the sense that he is an established run-maker who has previously done the job for Yorkshire in Division Two of the Championship.

The left-hander played 24 first-class games for the county in 2004-2005, scoring 2,477 runs at 61.92 and knows exactly what is required to be successful at that level.

Jaques will form part of a batting line-up which, in my view, looks as good as any around.

Indeed, I would say that every Yorkshire batsman, on paper, has the ability to pass 1,000 runs in the Championship this summer.

Ah yes... paper – that enduringly elusive commodity.

Things invariably look hunky-dory on paper in a way they rarely, if ever, seem to look on grass.

But posting big scores and giving their bowlers something to work with should not be a problem for Yorkshire this summer.

Rather, the biggest problem for Gillespie and Gale might well be working out which batsmen to include and which to leave out.

In addition to Jaques and Gale himself, Yorkshire can call on Joe Sayers, Adam Lyth, Anthony McGrath, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance and Gerard Brophy.

All are capable of big contributions and, by my reckoning, are effectively vying for six slots.

Competition for places is essential and something Yorkshire certainly possess. Over to you, captain and coach...

Where Yorkshire’s season will be determined, however, is whether they can consistently take 20 wickets to win games.

That may seem a statement of the blinding obvious and the key for any side with designs on success.

But whereas I have strong confidence in the batting department, I am slightly less sure about the bowling, while at the same time believing it could shine just as brightly – if you get my drift.

Ryan Sidebottom promises to be key and his 62 wickets last summer at a miserly cost of 22 were vital in ensuring Yorkshire even had a chance of staying up going into the final few games.

Crucially, the former England man managed to stay fit throughout the season and, at the age of 34, fitness may or may not become more of an issue as time goes by.

What is beyond doubt is that Sidebottom will need all the support he can get from a developing pace attack in which the likes of Ajmal Shahzad, Moin Ashraf, Steve Patterson, Iain Wardlaw and Oliver Hannon-Dalby will all be targeting major contributions.

I, like a good many who follow the fortunes of Yorkshire, was disappointed that the club released David Wainwright last year, seeing as he is one of the best left-arm spinners on the circuit, a tigerish fighter and a more-than-handy batsman.

However, Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq are two of the best tweakers around themselves, which underscored Yorkshire’s thinking on the matter, and they could well have an important role to play too.

All the talk is that Rashid is back to something like his best and, as one of his biggest admirers, I very much hope that is the case.

Still only 24, I feel he has a long international career ahead of him and he is certainly a tremendous asset to Yorkshire when firing on all cylinders – a player with the ability to make mincemeat of Second Division batsmen and bowlers alike.

And although Yorkshire should be right up there in the promotion mix, they cannot – and surely will not – take anything for granted.

The gap between the two divisions has widened in recent years – albeit not to the extent any side can simply expect to go straight back up as a matter of course.

Complacency is not an option and it will still take a lot of hard work plus the usual luck with the weather for Yorkshire to achieve the desired result.

At the risk of slipping into dreaded coach-speak, there really are no easy games in professional sport.

Another cliché invariably trotted out after relegation is that the unfortunate side will ultimately come back stronger for the experience.

However, in Yorkshire’s case this will surely be true.

Indeed, there is good reason to suppose that an overwhelmingly young squad will indeed benefit greatly from the kick up the backside that last year provided and that the disappointment may, in the final analysis, do them some good.

As ever, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating but, in the meantime, I’m off to the bookies...

[email protected]