Darren Gough on Shan Masood replacing Steve Patterson as Yorkshire CCC captain

Gough’s first season as Yorkshire’s managing director of cricket was highlighted by a trip to Finals Day of the T20 Blast but ended with the club suffering relegation from Division One of the County Championship.

Senior players like David Willey and Tom Kohler-Cadmore announced they would be leaving mid-season while veteran bowler Patterson relinquished the captaincy after being informed he would not be offered a contract for 2023.

Those decisions have been offset by the likes of England players Harry Brook, Joe Root and Dawid Malan signing new deals.

The club have signed Masood from Derbyshire, immediately installing the 32-year-old Pakistan international as captain.

The Pakistani opener was named alongside future club-mates Adam Lyth and Harry Brook in the domestic team of the season by the player's union, the Professional Cricketers Association, after a season which saw him top 1,000 County Championship runs for Derbyshire, who he led to the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Blast.

"Having met Shan a few times, he’s a very impressive human being and a great captain,” Gough told the Yorkshire website.

"He enjoyed his time at Derbyshire, who gave him an opportunity, but he was keen to come and play at Headingley.

"Shan understands the challenges that are facing us with a lot of senior players leaving. We believe that he has the experience, know-how and man-management skills to be a great leader for Yorkshire. We are so excited that he is coming on board.”

The length of the deal, two years, also bucks the trend of recent overseas signings committing to the club for short spells. Yorkshire had mixed success in that regard this summer; Pakistan’s Haris Rauf more than held his own in the Championship, but the same could not be said for the West Indies’ Shannon Gabriel.

"A concern moving forward for cricket in general is that it is very difficult nowadays to take an overseas signing for a long period because of the scheduling of the wider calendar,” continued Gough.

"With this in mind, we identified Shan Masood for next season and offered him a two-year contract as he will be able to play for long periods.

"That shows the commitment that we have made for an overseas player and I think that we will get that commitment back from him.

"Haris Rauf was a good signing and did really well. He was quick and what our bowling attack needed. With him in the side, we looked a lot better.

"Unfortunately for us, the repetition of games and the way that the schedules were put together, playing six games in a row, was hard on everyone.

"Our one-day signings were important in enabling the club to get to Vitality Blast Finals Day for the first time in six years. Those signings were right for that team and what we needed.

"Dimuth Karunaratne only came in for two games. He would have been an excellent signing if he had played all season. For any player to come in for a couple of games is always going to be difficult.”

The decision to allow Patterson to leave left a large portion of the Yorkshire membership confused, especially given he was the club’s second-highest wicket-taker in the County Championship First Division with 37 at 27.56.

But Gough, in saluting Patterson’s service, also stated that he would have struggled to get in the team next year.

"Steve has had a wonderful career with Yorkshire, and I say congratulations to him,” said Gough.

"He’s a great personality, a true icon who has been outstanding for the club. He was not blessed with pace, but he worked tirelessly on his skills and accuracy and has gone on to achieve great success over many years.

"He was a brilliant captain during a difficult period for the side and is hugely respected within the game.

“When I returned to Yorkshire as captain many years ago, Steve was relatively new into his professional career and volunteered the No 8 shirt back to me as he knew that it was my preferred shirt number.

"I think this sums him up, a no nonsense individual who just wanted to play cricket for Yorkshire.

"I’d like to wish him all the best with his next venture and I’m sure he will make a huge success of it. He will always be welcome back at Headingley.

“I always chat with the coaches to see how we would like to take the team forward. We felt that we needed to strengthen our all-round squad across competitions.

"We identified (new signings) Matt Milnes, an experienced performer, and Ben Mike, who is a young work in progress.

"We would love to have an overseas fast bowler as well.

"In an ideal world, you need to have seven or eight bowlers in your seam attack who can be available for all formats.

"If everybody is fit, we believe that Steve would not be in the starting XI.”