Yorkshire retain faith in McGrath pulling through

McGrath is set to keep his place for today’s County Championship Roses match at Headingley Carnegie.

The 35-year-old has scored 266 runs in 17 first team games this season at 12.66, with a top-score of 49.

In his six Championship matches, McGrath has made 173 runs at 14.41.

Adam Lyth (424 in nine games at 24.94) and Joe Sayers (257 in six games at 25.70) have better returns in this year’s competition, but McGrath is set to play ahead of them against arch-rivals Lancashire.

Yorkshire boss Martyn Moxon explained: “We want to give Anthony as much opportunity as we can to get into form.

“Mags in form is obviously a valuable asset to the team and me and Galey (captain Andrew Gale) are keen to have him in the side.

“At the same time, we can’t wait forever and he needs to score some runs quickly, but nobody knows that more than Mags.”

Yorkshire’s decision to support McGrath is clear evidence they see him as significant to their hopes of avoiding relegation.

Last summer, he was their third-highest scorer in the tournament with 1,219 runs at 43.53.

But knee and back injuries, which caused him to miss the crucial latter stages of pre-season, have interrupted his progress this year.

On top of that, McGrath developed a technical flaw which saw him dismissed lbw on several occasions.

“Mags has had a very difficult season so far,” admitted Moxon.

“He was injured pre-season and has been playing catch-up ever since.

“He’s very much what I’d call a rhythm player; if his movements are slightly out of synch, then it does affect him.

“Unfortunately, his pre-delivery movements haven’t been quite right this summer and he’s struggled a bit.”

Moxon is confident those technical issues have now been resolved. “The main problem was he was getting his head outside the line of the ball,” he added.

“But we’re confident that problem has now been sorted.

“Mags has been working tirelessly on his game and made runs for the second team and academy in recent times.

“He’s made big hundreds for them, so the form is there and it’s just a question now of transferring that form into the first team.”

Moxon detected flashes of the old fire at Scarborough last week.

McGrath made 32 in the first innings of the game against Worcestershire and looked in pretty good nick prior to his dismissal.

“There were some good signs at Scarborough and that was very encouraging,” he added.

“There were indications that the old Anthony McGrath is starting to come back.

“He’s an experienced player and we’re hoping it won’t be too long before he gets back to the form we know he’s capable of.

“I’m sure that once he gets a good score, he’ll be flying again.”

McGrath has another year left on his Yorkshire contract and is one of only four players in the squad aged 30 or above.

Gerard Brophy (also 35), Ryan Sidebottom (33) and the returning Jacques Rudolph (30) are the only other thirty-somethings in a squad of mostly talented youngsters.

McGrath’s experience is one of the main reasons Yorkshire are so keen to keep faith with him during his current difficulties.

He has had slumps of form in the past and fought through them tenaciously – and Moxon is confident it will only be a matter of time before he emerges from this one.

“Mags is still a class player,” he added. “He brings quality and experience to the top order and is extremely important in that respect.

“All I can say is he’s working extremely hard to turn things around. His hunger for success remains very strong.”

Moxon is calling on Yorkshire to pull out all the stops against Lancashire as they seek to build on last week’s victory against Worcestershire.

“Lancashire are having a good season and this promises to be another big test for us,” he added.

“We need to try and back up a good victory against Worcestershire and get ourselves on a bit of a run.”

Yorkshire and Lancashire will be playing for The Duke of Leeds Cup during this week’s contest.

The cup is on loan from the Yorkshire Regiment, which YCCC is hosting at Headingley today.

The Regiment was formed in 2006 from its distinguished Yorkshire Infantry predecessors – The Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Yorkshire, The Green Howards and the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

Former Yorkshire and England cricketers Hedley Verity, Herbert Sutcliffe and Norman Yardley are among those who served in the Regiment’s predecessors.

The Yorkshire Volunteers Band will play prior to the game and during the lunch interval.

All serving military personnel can gain free admission to the ground today.

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