As a Yorkshire supporter, things are already looking pretty good in my cricketing world. The Championship is all but secured for a second successive season and there is a Royal London Cup Quarter-Final to look forward to. Jason Gillespie’s squad contains vast experience and homegrown young talent and has been able to cope with the calls of Test Cricket.
Happy days, indeed, for the White Rose supporters, but richer promise is to come next season with the news of the signing of Northamptonshire and England all-rounder David Willey on a three-year contract. This is a significant move in the county game, as Willey is one of the country’s finest young players. He will add considerable firepower to the Yorkshire side, and is a talent coming to the boil at just the right time. Yorkshire will welcome his prodigious talent in all forms of the game. He has a T20 hat-trick under his belt, in the 2012 final, and hit the fastest century in the format by an English player to propel Northamptonshire into to Finals Day this season; he reached it in just 40 balls. Five England caps in limited overs cricket and 148 first-class wickets are further proof of the 25-year-old’s potential and versatility. He will be best known as a dynamic one-day specialist but his first-class record is improving with both bat and ball.
You can rest assured that his feet will remain firmly on the ground. He comes from fine cricketing stock, father Peter a resolute and respected cricketer and umpire at both county and international level. Peter Willey was never one to indulge in demonstrative excitement.
Wiley’s arrival at Headingley will mean that there are eight current or recent England international cricketers at Yorkshire, and the county will hope that his presence will help them overcome the one disappointing aspect of this season, the T20 campaign, and a wider issue of lack of success in the shorter forms of the game. Yorkshire have not received a Lord’s final in 15 years and there has been just one appearance at the T20 finals day in twelve seasons.
From Willey’s point of view he will be hoping that this ambitious move will help him achieve his dream of a Test cap. Like many of his new team-mates at Yorkshire, the left-hander is very much a home-grown player, born in Northampton and coming through the academy set up to play for his county of birth. He has admitted that the wrench of leaving a familiar set-up was foremost in his mind but now was the time to move on and extend his cricketing education. In doing that, he follows Jack Brooks who came North in 2012, and has been a significant part of Yorkshire’s recent success.
Yorkshire were spared a confrontation with their new signing as rain put paid to the final group game, against Northants, in the Royal London Cup yesterday but will be hoping that Willey’s presence on the various team sheets next season will herald even better days to come.
