Dawid Malan optimistic Yorkshire CCC can become white-ball "powerhouse"
YORKSHIRE are one of only four counties never to have won the T20 competition but new captain Dawid Malan is confident that they can arrest that “surprising” statistic and become “a powerhouse in white-ball cricket”.
Only Durham, Derbyshire and Glamorgan have also failed to get their hands on the silverware since the competition launched in 2003, with Gloucestershire breaking their duck against Somerset last year.
Yorkshire, in fact, have the joint-worst record, along with Derbyshire, of any county in white-ball cricket (T20 and one-day combined) since their last limited-overs trophy in 2002.
The other 16 have won at least one limited-overs event since then, whereas Yorkshire have now failed to win any of the last 50 they have entered.
“It’s surprising,” said Malan, reflecting on matters, “because when you look at the teams and the players they’ve had, they’ve had some fantastic players over the years.
“I’ve been part of teams that have had really good players and we haven’t been able to win either.
"I think that’s the challenge for us, trying to look at what we can to put things in place to make us a better team.
“It’s about finding the way we want to go about it so that hopefully Yorkshire can become a powerhouse in white-ball cricket.”
Hopes are high that Yorkshire can buck the trend in T20 at least, with the One-Day Cup now reduced to a development competition and a consequent lottery by the concurrent staging of The Hundred and its claim on the country’s best players.
Yorkshire have only thrice reached Finals Day, in fact, with a best finish of runners-up to Hampshire at Cardiff in 2012.
Malan, 37, brings obvious experience with his batting and his leadership, having previously captained Middlesex in the format, while the club has made a clear attempt to stop the rot by recruiting overseas players Will O’Sutherland and Will O’Rourke.
Ambition is no guarantee of success but Malan is confident that Yorkshire can break their hoodoo having been appointed T20 captain alongside new red-ball skipper Jonny Bairstow.
“In the last four years we made a quarter-final and a Finals Day, which means we have a good base of white-ball cricket; it’s just fine tuning a few things here or there,” he said.
“I think we’ve made some really, really good signings in Sutherland and O’Rourke.
"If you look at it over the last couple of years, we’ve really struggled with injuries and being able to nail down overseas players for the full Blast. We’ve had them for bits and pieces.
“But to have guys that are going to be available for a good bit and that are actually going to be able to bowl in the tough times, which we’ve probably not had the personnel available to us at all times with injuries to do, I think that’s going be a massive plus for us.”
Malan, who said that he will be available for “five or six” of the first seven County Championship games, believes that the prospect of a more settled T20 team could be key.
“I look at the teams we’ve had in the past - even before my time there’s been some unbelievably good cricketers, but I guess Yorkshire’s curse is that they have so many good cricketers they get picked for England and you lose them for half the tournament,” he reflected.
“But if you look at it this year you’ve got Jonny Bairstow available, maybe a bit of Adil Rashid, two overseas internationals available for the majority of it, people like Jafer Chohan who have come through.
“You look at it now, and we haven’t only got 11 guys to pick from, we’ve got 14-15, which is the depth we haven’t had.
"In the time I’ve been here we’ve always been unfortunate with Matthew Fisher being injured, or Ben Coad being injured, and things like that.”