White attacks ‘blame culture’ at Yorkshire

CRAIG WHITE has spoken of the “massive blame culture” at Yorkshire County Cricket Club that persuaded him to quit after 21 years.

White has lifted the lid on the reason for his departure after joining Hampshire as assistant coach.

The former England all-rounder had stressed he had no desire to depart under a cloud when he chose not to re-apply for his job as Yorkshire first team coach last autumn, insisting the separation was entirely amicable.

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But now he has criticised his former employers, with whom he will lock horns in Division Two of the Championship next summer after both clubs were relegated in 2011.

In an interview featured on Hampshire’s website, White revealed the extent of his unhappiness at Headingley Carnegie.

He admitted he became “disillusioned” with Yorkshire and realised he had no wish to be there in 10 years’ time.

The 42-year-old said Yorkshire was not “a particularly nice place to work” and that Hampshire is “a totally different feel to Yorkshire – an exciting feeling”.

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White added that Hampshire possess “some decent guys in charge as well” and continued: “I was a bit disillusioned with the way they do things up there (in Yorkshire).

“The year before we had a great season – we were basically 50 runs away from winning the Championship. Then, all of a sudden, last season didn’t go that well and a massive blame culture came in.

“Towards the end of the season, it wasn’t a particularly nice place to work. I just sat down and thought, ‘Do I really want to be a coach? Do I want to be here in 10 years and I decided that I didn’t, so that’s one of the reasons I left.”

White departed by saying he wanted to change tack completely and work towards becoming an international umpire.

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It was why his decision to join Hampshire last week raised several eyebrows, particularly after he had admitted there were areas of coaching he does not like.

“As much as I love working with the players and the cricketing aspects, there are some parts of coaching I don’t enjoy,” White told the Yorkshire Post last November. “There’s a lot of coaching badges you’ve got to do nowadays, and I hate sitting down and doing that sort of thing. I hated school, and doing coaching badges is a bit like going back to school and doing assignments.

“All I wanted was to be outside working with the players, but that’s only part of a coach’s job.”

White was one of five men working beneath director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon who were invited to re-apply for their jobs when the county restructured their coaching operation at the end of last summer.

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Batting coach Kevin Sharp, bowling coach Steve Oldham and second team coach John Blain were all deemed surplus to requirements, with only director of cricket operations Ian Dews retained in a new role of director of cricket development.

Yorkshire hired former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie as first team coach to run the side along with captain Andrew Gale, with Moxon – under the modified title of director of cricket – moved to more of a supervisory position.

In addition, Yorkshire recruited former Kent and Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace to run the second XI and appointed Richard Damms as development manager.

Despite his previously expressed coaching reservations, White said he jumped at the chance when Hampshire came calling.

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“Giles White (Hampshire’s manager) gave me a phone call and said they were interested in me coming down to do a bit of coaching,” he said. “I’ve said before that I’ve always admired Hampshire and the way they go about things, and it will be great to see how it’s done at another county.

“It looks focused but in a nice, relaxed atmosphere which, for me, I think is fantastic. I’ve only been down here a couple of days but there’s a really nice feeling around the club. There’s a nice, small squad of players, which I think is good. You can have too many and things get lost all over the place, but a nice little cosy squad I think is going to be great for the season. There seems to be a good bunch of lads and some decent guys in charge as well.”

White is open-minded about his long-term future.

“I’m here to assist Giles,” he added. “I’m not here to reinvent the wheel. I’m probably still going to do my umpiring course and I’m keeping my options open. I’ve said I’ll come and do this (Hampshire) for six months and see if I enjoy it and see if Hampshire enjoy me, and sit down at the end of the season and then decide where to go from there.”