Shan Masood in it for the long haul at Yorkshire CCC
SHAN MASOOD wants to see out his career at Yorkshire and play on into his 40s.
The Yorkshire captain, who is 34, is ready to pledge his long-term future.
Masood, who is in the last year of a two-year deal, said that talks had already started.
“We’ve spoken. I’ve let them know of my desire. The only place I would be interested in playing cricket, apart from Pakistan, is Yorkshire.
“If I’m not playing for Pakistan, I would love to play for Yorkshire - and for a considerable amount of time.
“I consider the club home, and I like playing cricket. I’m 34, but I still feel fine, and hopefully I can continue for another six years.”
Masood, the Pakistan Test captain, has performed well for Yorkshire in the Championship especially.
He has hit 1,240 runs in 15 Championship games for the club at an average of 53.91, with four hundreds and four fifties.
The left-hander also enjoys captaining Yorkshire, combining two of the most difficult jobs - some might say poisoned chalices - in world cricket.
He is not precious about the Yorkshire leadership, however, recognising that the club might want to groom a younger captain.
“I love captaincy, and it’s a huge responsibility because you have to manage a lot of things, but you don’t always have to have the tag of being captain.
“I don’t know, in the future, you might want to groom a younger captain at Yorkshire, and for that you have many leaders off the field that can help to do that, make that younger captain who can probably serve Yorkshire for ten years to come.
“I think, as an overseas player, you are a leader anyway, and it’s by your actions that you are a leader.
"A squad, a franchise, a club, they need several leaders… not just the captain.”
Yorkshire will need a new captain, of the stand-in variety, when Masood disappears briefly towards the end of the season when Pakistan play a two-Test series at home to Bangladesh.
Those games, under the leadership of new Pakistan Test coach Jason Gillespie, the ex-Yorkshire head coach, take place between August 21 and September 3, ruling Masood out of the Championship matches against Sussex at Scarborough and Middlesex at Headingley.
“The (Test) dates have just been announced, and from what I see, that’s the only thing that’s falling in the county season, those two Test matches at the end of August.
“I’ll probably end up missing two Championship matches, which isn’t ideal, but national duty obviously comes first.”
Masood would then return for the final three Championship fixtures away to Leicestershire and Glamorgan and at home to Northamptonshire.
Yorkshire head into the final quintet of four-day games with their promotion challenge back on track.
Having failed to win any of their first seven fixtures, which equated to half of the summer, they won their last two by an innings against Gloucestershire at Scarborough and against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, shooting them up to third in the table, only four points behind Middlesex in the second and final promotion place.
Yorkshire are just 27 points behind leaders Sussex, in fact, a gap they would obviously close if they can make it three wins on the trot when they face the frontrunners at North Marine Road from August 22.
The break for white-ball cricket has not come at a good time, but Masood is confident that Yorkshire can return to the top flight after relegation in 2022.
“It was very pleasing to get those two wins. We’re four points off second spot, but, if we’re being honest, there have been certain missed opportunities where we could have been sitting pretty, and also in the T20, too.
“It’s about making sure that we try and aim for those top two positions in four-day cricket, make at least the quarter-finals in the T20 Blast if we can, and hopefully have a good one-day competition as well.
"That’s also important, and there’s a lot to play for.”
Looking ahead to the future, and what he perceives as a long-term project at Yorkshire, Masood said: “There are still facets of the game that we really need to improve.
"Obviously we want to compete on all fronts and to be in Division One, and when you’ve selected a project, you’d like to see the project through.
“There’s some serious talent in the dressing room, and I’m at an age where it’s about contributing to the greater good rather than just looking after myself.
“This is a place where I feel like a leader, and we’ve put in a lot of effort.
"You don’t want to leave something half-cooked, or half undone.
“The ideal scenario would be to take this project to the heights that we all believe it should be taken to.”