Dawid Malan departs to leave Yorkshire CCC in need of a new T20 captain
YORKSHIRE have announced that Dawid Malan is to leave the club by mutual consent.
The former England batsman - who signed a new two-year deal last December - has opted to pursue “a new challenge elsewhere”.
The 38-year-old, who joined Yorkshire from Middlesex ahead of the Covid summer of 2020, remains in demand on the franchise circuit.
It leaves Yorkshire in need of a new T20 captain, with Malan having been appointed to the role in March.
In a succinct statement confirming his departure, released soon after the dramatic opening day of the first Ashes Test in Perth, the city where Malan made his only Test century in 2017, the player said: “I have enjoyed six happy and successful seasons with Yorkshire, but feel now is the right time for the club to make a fresh start.
“I am grateful to the general manager of cricket, Gavin Hamilton, and head coach Anthony McGrath for allowing me to seek a new challenge elsewhere.”
Hamilton said: “Dawid has been a consistent run-scorer across all formats and will always be welcome at Headingley.
"We thank him for his very significant contribution in recent seasons, and we wish him well for the future.”
Malan, who played 22 Tests, 30 one-day internationals and 62 T20 internationals, and was once the world’s No 1-ranked T20 batsman, will leave a big hole in Yorkshire’s batting.
Last summer, despite presiding over one of the club’s worst T20 showings as they finished second-bottom of the North Group with nine defeats in 14 games, he scored almost 600 runs with four half-centuries.
He contributed 392 runs in five County Championship games too, having reversed an earlier decision to retire from red-ball cricket.