Gillespie praise for Yorkshire stars after T20 show

Yorkshire are third in the Championship Second Division with 89 points from eight games, level on points with second-placed Kent and 32 points behind leaders Derbyshire with a game in hand.

They are through to the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup, having won seven of their 10 group matches to finish top of the northern section, with only their CB40 form – two wins from five games – having been somewhat disappointing.

And while everything in the garden is not yet rosy, with the club having much to prove in the Championship in particular as they pursue the minimum requirement of promotion, Yorkshire are well-placed to push on in that tournament and the 20-over competition as they chase their first silverware since 2002.

Gillespie, the former Australia fast bowler, has had a positive influence on the bowlers, in particular, since rejoining the club as first team coach during the winter in a major off-field reshuffle at Headingley Carnegie.

Paul Farbrace, the former Kent and Sri Lanka coach, was brought in to take charge of the second XI, while Iain Dews was handed the title of director of development and Richard Damms the job of development manager.

Bowling coach Steve Oldham, batting coach Kevin Sharp and assistant bowling coach John Blain all departed after many years of excellent service. Martyn Moxon remained as director of cricket with responsibility for pulling the new coaching team together but Gillespie modestly believes any recognition for Yorkshire’s efforts so far this summer should go to the players.

On the eve of today’s match against Hampshire at Southampton, which begins the second half of Yorkshire’s Championship programme, Gillespie said: “Everything we’ve achieved so far this year has been player-driven.

“That’s been the most important thing for me.

“Basically, the Yorkshire players aren’t satisfied.

“They’re not happy being in Division Two of the Championship, they’re not happy finishing mid-table in T20, they’re not happy finishing mid-table in Pro40.

“As coaches, we’ve come in and introduced a couple of things – nothing major, we’re not inventing the wheel – but it’s the players who’ve been coming to us and saying, ‘We’re not satisfied with how things are going and we want to be better.’”

Those words have been music to the ears of Gillespie, who places great emphasis on players effectively being their own selectors by taking responsibility for themselves.

It was an ethos that served him well as part of arguably the greatest team to have played the game, the feared Australian combination of the Nineties and Noughties.

“When players want to be better and are willing to go that extra mile to achieve that, it makes our job very easy,” he added. “Our job is simply to create an environment for them to get better and within which to flourish.

“Some of our training sessions, for instance, are very much player-driven.

“It’s all about how they want to prepare and train and get themselves ready for games.

“At the same time, there are times, of course, when we say, ‘This is what you’re doing – get on with it.’

“And they’ve responded to that.

“Myself, Martyn and Paul have got to the point with the players where we have their respect.

“Basically, they know that if we’re saying something there’s a real reason behind it, and a real drive to get that continuing improvement.”

Gillespie hopes to see more evidence of that in the second half of a Championship season blighted by adverse weather.

Yorkshire have lost more than a third of their four-day programme to rain and bad light and struggled to create the rhythm so evident in Twenty20.

“Everyone is looking forward to playing some Championship cricket now and really trying to kick-on in that competition,” added Gillespie. “We’re pretty well placed – effectively joint-second in the table as we chase one of the two promotion spots – and hopefully the weather will be a lot kinder to us.

“It has been pretty exciting to watch us in the Twenty20 and we’re deservedly through to the quarter-finals.

“But Championship cricket is the No 1 priority and we need to get a good result at Hampshire this week.”

With Steve Harmison making his debut and Jonny Bairstow available having been deemed surplus to requirements for yesterday’s one-day international against Australia, Yorkshire will be well-represented on the south coast.

Hampshire are without knee injury victim Michael Carberry, who scored an unbeaten 300 in the corresponding fixture last year and shared in a record stand of 523 with Neil McKenzie.

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