Gillespie vows to make Yorkshire a one-day force

Yorkshire put all their eggs into one basket in an effort to win the Championship in their 150th year, resting key players for a Yorkshire Bank 40 competition in which they lost nine of 12 games.

The tactic was criticised by some supporters but so nearly paid the ultimate dividend, Yorkshire finishing Championship runners-up on the back of some outstanding displays.

First-team coach Gillespie – having presided over the club’s second-best Championship finish since 1975 – believes Yorkshire were right to put the four-day game first.

“It’s no secret that the Championship has been our No 1 priority and rightly so, in my view,” he said. “The lads put up one heck of an effort to win the competition and I was absolutely delighted with their efforts.

“The one-day results haven’t been good but imagine if we hadn’t kept someone like Ryan Sidebottom as fresh as possible for Championship cricket; he got nearly 50 wickets this year and bowled superbly.

“I think there’s been a little bit of method to our madness.”

Gillespie in no way dismisses concerns over Yorkshire’s poor one-day form and acknowledges some supporters have not been pleased.

The former Australia fast bowler is adamant things will be different next year.

“Members will look at the win-loss column and deservedly so, and we need to sit down and address our one-day results,” he said.

“We’re not shying away from that and we will get better.

“We know it’s a real area we need to improve – and we will improve.

“You’re going to see a very good one-day and T20 unit next year from Yorkshire County Cricket Club.”

These are not empty words from Gillespie after a season in which Yorkshire lost 16 of 22 games in the YB40 and Twenty20 combined.

For he believes the flexibility afforded by a revamped county schedule will permit Yorkshire to rest key players at little or no cost to one-day displays.

Next season, most Championship games start on Sundays and Twenty20 matches will be played on Friday nights between mid-May and late July.

A new 50-over competition – which replaces the YB40 – will see a block of group games between late July and late August, with only one Championship round in that period.

“Next year, the 50-over game is blocked, so that may afford us opportunities to pick our strongest side each and every time, which wasn’t possible this year with the programming,” said Gillespie.

“With Ryan, Steve Patterson and Jack Brooks in particular, we were very conscious of making sure they were as fresh as possible for Championship cricket, and it was pretty obvious what we were doing.

“With the T20s every Friday night, that will present us with challenges again as to how we look after our quicks, but I think the main area we let ourselves down this year in T20 was with the bat.

“We averaged 130 as our par score for the whole tournament, and that doesn’t win too many T20 games.”

While accepting one-day results must improve, Gillespie believes the strategy of resting players in the YB40 has had another clear benefit.

He feels the experience gained by younger players who replaced the likes of Sidebottom and Patterson can only help the club going forward.

“People will see that we lost a lot more games than we won, but I think you’ve got to dig a little bit deeper into that and look at the opportunities afforded to young players,” he said.

“They’ve been given opportunities to gain experience and we’ve been absolutely delighted with them.

“While they haven’t maybe set the world on fire at times, they’ve learnt so much.”

Gillespie continued: “Will Rhodes, for example, has come on leaps and bounds; he’s gone back to second team cricket after spending some time with the first team and hit run-a-ball hundreds.

“He’s also gone on to play England Under-19s and hit a hundred off 80 balls in a match against Pakistan U-19s.

“We gave Jack Leaning some opportunities and he got a five-fer for us and hit 60 off 40 balls against Somerset at Taunton against a good attack.

“Young Ben Coad, we gave him the responsibility of bowling in powerplays and opening the bowling, getting him to spend some time around our more senior players, talking about the game and learning all the time.”

The bottom line is Yorkshire have enjoyed a fine season in the Championship and taken clear strides under Gillespie and director of cricket Martyn Moxon.

“The challenge is to build on what we’ve done this year because I think we’ve done a lot of very good things,” said Gillespie.

“Can we do some things better? Of course.

“There were a couple of Championship games this year when we didn’t hammer home the advantage and that could prove to be the difference next time.

“We’re determined to keep playing the positive brand of cricket we’ve been playing and to continue to entertain our members and the crowds.”