Yorkshire matching vintage of Sixties, claims John Hampshire

Would the current Yorkshire team beat the great Yorkshire side of the 1960s?

Answers on a postcard to The Yorkshire Post letters page, which always enjoys a healthy debate.

One man eminently qualified to answer that question is John Hampshire, the former Yorkshire and England batsman, international umpire and now president of Yorkshire CCC.

Hampshire was part of the team that dominated county cricket half-a-century ago, when Yorkshire won seven County Championships between 1959 and 1968, and he has kept a close eye on the present side that has secured back-to-back Championship titles.

Hampshire believes that the 1960s side would prevail on uncovered pitches, as modern players are unaccustomed to them, but he feels there is precious little between the respective vintages.

“They would give us a hell of a game,” he said. “I think it would be a very good contest.

“They’re not far away (from what we did then), and I think they’ve done remarkably well.

“A lot of people I talked to last year were absolutely astonished at the quality of cricket we were playing, even the old players.

“Some of the people who can vaguely remember when we played were saying that they’re nearly as good as you lot were, and it’s a great accolade.”

Hampshire’s admiration for the present side is magnified by the fact that Yorkshire are habitually hampered by England call-ups.

Last year, Joe Root did not play a single County Championship match, and Yorkshire were also without the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett at various stages.

“I think this side is remarkable, simply because they’re having to do it more or less all on their own,” said Hampshire.

“When we were playing, the England players came back into our side – the likes of Fred, Closey, Illy, Boycs. They came back and they were playing for us.

“This side, they don’t get their England players, so it’s been advantageous to the club to have a very good Academy and second team bringing the youngsters in.”

If that is an unintended benefit of central contracts, which means that Yorkshire have had to develop from within to plug the gaps left by England players, it is primarily a reflection on the work done by director of cricket Martyn Moxon and his coaching staff.

Yorkshire now have such a solid structure in place that there is no reason to believe that the production line will dry up, or the success of the first team will grind to a halt; indeed, there is far more reason to suppose that it will thrive for the rest of the decade and beyond, continuing, every Yorkshireman hopes, with a third successive Championship this summer.

“I’d like to think they could win it again this year, I really do,” said Hampshire.

“But it’s like everything else, isn’t it? They’ve raised the bar to such an extent that other people are now saying, ‘Hey, Yorkshire can play that well and we’ve got to make sure that we get up there.’

“I think it will be slightly harder for them because of that, but, providing that people stay fit and the form is there, I don’t think there’s a great deal to stop us.”

No county has won a hat-trick of Championships since Hampshire was part of the Yorkshire side that did it between 1966-1968.

In an era graced by such as Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Raymond Illingworth and Geoffrey Boycott, a quartet that practically came with the guarantee of success, the contributions of men like Hampshire are sometimes overlooked.

But he was a high-class performer in his own right, scoring more than 28,000 first-class runs at an average in the mid-30s, and he represented England in eight Tests and three one-day internationals.

An attractive middle-order batsman of unflinching courage, Hampshire became the first batsman to score a hundred on Test debut at Lord’s when he hit 107 against the West Indies in 1969, and he went on to umpire 21 Tests and 20 one-day internationals.

As such, he is a most deserving choice as the new Yorkshire president in succession to Dickie Bird, of whom he quips that he can “follow in his boots, but not his back pocket”.

Like Bird, who served with great distinction, Hampshire views the honour as the icing on the cake of his cricketing life.

“It’s a big honour, and it’s very humbling,” he said. “A club with the history that Yorkshire’s got, to finish up as president, it’s remarkable really.

“I had one thought all those years ago, and that was just to play for Yorkshire. But to have played as long as I did, and to get to this status, is wonderful, and I’m very grateful to the club and the members.”