Yorkshire delighted to land Finch’s explosive T20 talents

The 27-year-old batsman had just finished playing for the city’s Big Bash team the Renegades when he got a call from Andrew Gale to meet him for lunch.

The two parties had been talking about a potential link-up for a number of weeks, but Yorkshire needed someone to go in there and close the deal.

Gale was in town to work on his own game, so why not send the face of the club to go and grease the skids, as it were.

Gale was only too happy to oblige.

Having watched Finch smack the ball around the MCG he knew exactly what kind of explosive talent Yorkshire were courting, but what type of man would they be getting?

“I saw him in the Big Bash and I went out to lunch with him to see what he’s like as a character really,” said Gale.

“The last few years one of our biggest assets is that we’ve got everyone driving in the same direction, we’ve got a real strong dressing room and getting the right characters in that dressing room is essential.

“Aaron is a good lad, he spent some time at Clifton Alliance so he knows the area well, plus he’s toured with Australia.

“He had a fantastic summer out there in the Big Bash, scored loads of runs and we all saw what he did in England last summer.

“And the deal went through very smoothly.”

Gale laughs at the suggestion that the contract was signed and sealed there and then, but there is no doubting the character test was one Finch had to pass, regardless of ability.

Yorkshire did not want to rock the boat, and parachuting a player in for only a couple of months of a season can have that effect.

It is why when asked if Finch – one of the three-best Twenty20 batsmen in world cricket – will be a difference maker for Yorkshire in the competition this season, director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon points to the rest of his team as being required to support the headline act.

“Obviously every member of the team needs to play their part, but hopefully the way he plays he can get us off to really devastating starts and the rest of the lads can build on that,” said Moxon.

“We’re not bringing him to be the one and only match-winner, we’ve got match-winners throughout the team, but hopefully his style of play can put us on the front foot at the top of the innings.”

As diplomatic as Moxon was yesterday, there is no question how chuffed Yorkshire are at landing a man currently playing the best cricket of his career.

Yorkshire courted him for weeks, before his explosive contributions to Australia’s destruction of England in the limited-overs series’ this winter.

And when the time was right, they made their move.

“We’ve been talking to him for a little while,” said Moxon. “It was delayed because of the lack of clarity on the tour to the West Indies, so we’ve held back a bit until we found out when that was going to be.

“And although we haven’t quite nailed those dates down, we felt it was time to move.

“When you’re signing overseas players you’re trying to get quality, there’s no point signing someone for the sake of it.

“We waited to see who was going to be available and when Aaron showed his hand that he wanted to play county cricket then he was very high on the list of candidates.

“With Aaron’s success this winter against England in the ODIs we wanted to get him nailed down now and we’re all delighted we’ve got his signature.

“We’ve got a very good group of players and we had a decent season last year, albeit not so good in one-day cricket, hence why we’ve signed Aaron to try and help us improve our one-day cricket.

“We want to be able to challenge on all fronts and I would expect Aaron to contribute in all.

“He’s a very attacking batsman and hopefully he can take games away from teams in four-day cricket as well as one-day and Twenty20.”

That promise of four-day cricket is clearly an important aspect of the deal for both club and individual, with Finch expressing his desire already to contribute in the County Championship.

His history in Yorkshire – he played for Clifton Alliance in the York Senior League in 2009 – plus the county’s links with Australia coach Darren Lehmann helped make the job of Moxon, Gale and chief executive Mark Arthur in sealing the deal, that little bit easier.

“I don’t want to go into figures but he’s not a budget buster,” said Moxon.

“I’m sure Aaron could have got more elsewhere but that’s the beauty of this deal. He’s shown that he’s keen to play for Yorkshire.

“We’ve only got a certain amount of money we can spend and he’s happy to come for that. That shows he’s keen to play for Yorkshire and he’s not just here for the money.

“It shows the Yorkshire name is as strong as ever.”

Closer to home, the county’s marketing team have gone into overdrive. With Twenty20 cricket played predominantly on a Friday night this year they already have a better platform on which to promote the product.

Finch’s arrival can only enhance that. Today they are launching a campaign warning spectators to expect “flying balls during play this season...due to the signing of Aaron Finch”.

As Gale said: “We’ve signed a player of great stature, who is right at the top of his game in Twenty20 and one-day cricket and one of the best in the world right now.

“The lads have just been told and they’re already asking about him. When you sign a player like this it can only bring excitement to the whole county.”

n Tickets for Yorkshire’s seven home Twenty20 matches go on sale tomorrow at 10am from the ticket office on 0843 5043099, or via www.yorkshireccc.com

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