Yorkshire stick to home-grown policy and reject Indian Test star

Jaffer, 32, was interested in plugging the gap left by South African batsman Jacques Rudolph, who left the county earlier this month after four prolific seasons at Headingley Carnegie.

Yorkshire believe it is more important to strengthen their bowling department and are expected to sign ex-England pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom by the end of next week.

The club say they do not have sufficient funds to recruit two new players and are keen to give greater opportunities to home-grown batsmen following the departure of Rudolph, who scored 2,463 runs in all competitions last summer to help Yorkshire to third place in the County Championship and to the semi-finals of the Clydesdale Bank 40 League.

Jaffer, who played 31 Tests between 2000 and 2008, has a remarkably similar first-class record to Rudolph albeit having played most of his career in the less strenuous pastures of Indian cricket.

In 184 games, Jaffer has scored 13,868 runs at 49.52 with 39 hundreds, whereas in 186 matches Rudolph has made 13,337 runs at 45.05 with 38 centuries.

Jaffer has played Huddersfield League cricket for several seasons and has just enjoyed a record-breaking summer with Skelmanthorpe, plundering 2,083 runs to eclipse the previous League best of 1,810 by South African Brandon Nash for Thongsbridge in 1999.

But Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of professional cricket, said the county were looking in a different direction.

"We're hopefully going to sign Ryan Sidebottom," said Moxon, who is concerned Yorkshire could be exposed next summer in the absence of England bowlers Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad.

"If we don't get Ryan, we'll be in the market for an overseas fast bowler because we feel it is more important to add experience to our bowling department.

"Wasim Jaffer is obviously a very fine player but we're going down a different route at this moment in time. On top of that, we haven't got the money to sign two new players."

Jaffer, who has two Test match double centuries to his name, has never played county cricket.

He was approached by Glamorgan last summer but is keen to remain in Yorkshire, where he has a house.

Prior to joining Skelmanthorpe, Jaffer had two spells with fellow Huddersfield League club Scholes.

He made 1,384 runs for Scholes in 1999 and then struck 1,400 in 2000 at an average of 100 to help them to the title. In 2001, Jaffer scored 1,359 runs at 97.01 to help Scholes retain their crown.

Jaffer returned to Scholes in 2004, scoring 1,203, and, in 2005, he struck 1,705 at 121.79.

This year, his efforts helped Skelmanthorpe to glory in the Sykes Cup.

Part by design and part by necessity, Yorkshire are moving increasingly towards fielding a team of entirely home-grown players – a development that will delight traditionalists.

Of the current Championship squad, only wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy and batsman Gary Ballance, born in South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively, were not raised in the Broad Acres, with Ballance among those set to benefit from Rudolph's departure.

"We want to challenge batsmen like Gary Ballance and Joe Root to find out how good they can be," added Moxon, who has given several youngsters their chance during the last few years.

"These lads have to be tested out at some point and we want to give more opportunities to our home-grown players.

"We were in the same position at the start of this year with a few of the lads and they stepped up to the plate magnificently.

"There's no reason why that can't be the case again next summer and why we can't continue to develop highly successful young Yorkshire cricketers."