Yorkshire CCC head coach Anthony McGrath: We wouldn’t beat a kids’ team playing like this
ANTHONY MCGRATH said that Yorkshire wouldn’t win a game in the Bradford Sunday School League if they keep playing in the way that they have started the new season.
The county’s head coach pulled no punches after his side lost by 214 runs against Hampshire at Headingley, a result that followed a draw in their opening match against Glamorgan in Cardiff when he also felt they were well below their best.
“If we keep putting out performances like that it doesn’t matter if we’re playing in the Bradford Sunday School League because we’re going to lose,” said McGrath.
“We’ve got to be better because it hasn’t been good enough.
“If I was a supporter watching that, I'd be thinking, ‘What the hell have these guys been doing for the last six months?’
“Because it looks like we’ve forgotten how to play which, although that isn’t the case, clearly isn’t great.
“Look, it’s early days. There’s 12 (County Championship) games left and a hell of a long way to go, but the point we need to get over is we’re not happy by any means with the start that we’ve made.
“We’re falling way below the standards we expect and set towards the back end of last season, so hopefully this is a timely reminder and we won’t be having these chats again (in the dressing room) at the end of games.
“Three of the four things that we live by as a team are - team first, problem solving, and accountability, and I’ve seen none of that so far.
“There’s no point in me trying to sugarcoat it because that’s where we’re at.”
McGrath went on: “Look, I’m a pretty positive guy but I’m not deluded either. It’s not been good enough, and if things don’t pick up you’ll see a very different team selected.
“The warning signs were there last week at Glamorgan. I spoke down there about how we played and that there were a few worrying signs with the bat, a few with the ball, and unfortunately they've continued this week.
"We’re just not getting the basics right, which is so frustrating from the optimism of pre-season and how we finished last year. The work we’ve put in just hasn’t been translated on to the pitch.
“We’ve shown a few flashes if you want to take any kind of positives, but I don’t want to do that because it’s one of my pet hates when I hear people do that, and we need to make sure that these two performances don’t happen again for the rest of the season.”
Yorkshire now have a break between Championship games, returning to action against Sussex at Headingley on April 24.
Joe Root is set to make his first appearance of the campaign, while Jonny Bairstow is expected to have recovered from the small fracture in his right thumb which ruled him out of the Hampshire clash.
McGrath also hopes to have Jhye Richardson and Jack White available after both pace men went down with food poisoning during this match.
Yorkshire replaced them with two substitutes in the form of Logan van Beek and Ben Cliff, the former capturing four wickets in the second innings in one of the few positives that Yorkshire could take.
“We’re not quite sure how it happened but they've both had food poisoning,” said McGrath of the stricken bowlers.
“Both ate separately the night before, but Jhye’s came on a little bit quicker and we had to send him home, then Jack tried to play and came back the next morning, but he was sick and up all night again yesterday.
“I think it's just some kind of food poisoning which hopefully won't be longer than a couple of days.
“Not ideal, of course, but these things happen and we’re certainly not using it as an excuse.”