Yorkshire give their players chance to get away from cricket following double blow

YORKSHIRE are to rest the majority of their first-team squad for today’s match at Durham University and allow players to “clear their heads” following a stressful start to the season.

The club have decided not to give some established players extra match practice in the three-day game at the Racecourse Ground in a week when Yorkshire have no County Championship fixture.

Yorkshire might have been tempted to field a strong side after two defeats in their opening three Championship matches and a shock loss to the Netherlands in the CB40.

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But they believe their players would benefit from a break less than three weeks into the season, a move taken with one eye firmly on a manic May which sees Yorkshire potentially in action on 23 out of 31 days as they travel to Nottingham, Canterbury, Liverpool, Worcester, Taunton and Hove – a schedule that might have taxed even Phileas Fogg.

“We feel the best thing is to let the lads clear their heads, have a bit of time off and then do some practice before our next first-team game on Monday,” said Yorkshire’s Director of Professional Cricket Martyn Moxon.

“They can get away from cricket for a few days, do a bit of practice and then be ready to go again next week.

“Hopefully, fresh minds will help with a few things we need to put right and benefit the lads in the long term.

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“It’s been a busy start to the season, with pretty much back-to-back games, and if we don’t give them a rest now they won’t get one for the foreseeable future.”

Joe Sayers will lead Yorkshire in the North East as he battles to win back his first-team place after being dropped following the opening Championship match at Worcestershire.

England pace bowler Ajmal Shahzad will continue his comeback following a hamstring injury, while David Wainwright and Oliver Hannon-Dalby are the only players named in a 12-man squad who took part in the Nottinghamshire fixture.

Moxon said Yorkshire must respond positively to the remarkable defeats against Nottinghamshire and the Netherlands.

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Nottinghamshire produced an astonishing fight back to win by 58 runs after effectively being minus 26-6 in their second innings, while the Dutch won by two runs after reducing Yorkshire to 27-5 in reply to their own 190-8.

“It’s how we react now that’s important,” stressed Moxon.

“It’s been a difficult few days, but nobody said it was going to be easy this season and it’s up to us to put things right.

“It’s hard to put your finger on why things went wrong in the last couple of games but there was probably a bit of a hangover against the Netherlands after what happened against Notts.

“It’s not easy to get over a match like that in just a couple of days, and every little mistake you make tends to get magnified and punished.”

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Moxon said he had taken a supportive line with his players this week.

“I’ve just told them they need to concentrate on doing the basics better; that’s what I’ve been majoring on with the lads,” he added.

“You can’t afford to create fear; if you start going too hard at people, then they’re frightened to play a shot and things can rapidly go from bad to worse.

“Essentially, I want to see batsmen playing forward and back positively in the early part of their innings and then, when they do get in, not give away their wickets lightly through poor thinking or poor shot execution.

“That’s the target, but we’ve got to avoid creating fear.”

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Yorkshire’s next first team game is a CB40 fixture against Derbyshire at Headingley Carnegie on Bank Holiday Monday.

Yorkshire off-spinner Azeem Rafiq – currently on a month’s loan at Derbyshire – is not allowed to play as part of his loan arrangement.

Yorkshire squad versus Durham University (from): Sayers (captain), Ballance, Geldart, Lees, Lilley, Shahzad, Wainwright, Randhawa, Ashraf, Hodgson, Gibson, Hannon-Dalby.