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| Saturday, 21 September, 2002, 08:49 GMT 09:49 UK Time to pick up the pieces
On Monday, Darren Gough meets Yorkshire's new chief executive, Colin Graves, to discuss his future at Headingley. It is a meeting that will begin a winter for the club which could be as busy and eventful as this gloomy summer of relegation has been. It was 5.25pm on the 15th of the month that the grim news was confirmed. A six-wicket defeat to Warwickshire sent last year's Champions falling to the second division.
A defeat to Kent the following weekend cemented their place right at the bottom of the table. 'We'll bounce back' is the predictable cry from the club. But coach Wayne Clark, who has a year left on his contract, has been left in no doubt that to fail to do so is not acceptable. Clark accepts responsibility but is it really his fault? He was the leading force in making the change in captaincy which saw David Byas decide to leave. He was also responsible for the club's preparations for the season. But after that does the team not take the blame? It is they who have not performed and once the season is underway the captain has ultimate charge. Mistake It was interesting to hear Graves declare recently that to allow 2001 captain David Byas to leave was a mistake. Accusations of complacency are gathering support as fans and players alike try to work out what went wrong. One likely change next year would be the abandonment of the pre-season trip overseas.
But other areas need closer examination too. The county needs to ask itself what help is available to a batsman such as Matthew Wood when things go wrong. All the senior coaches, after all, are bowlers. And Yorkshire's overseas player Matthew Elliott cannot believe so much time in England is spent playing, leaving hardly any time to correct flaws. For the time being Clark can return home and gather his thoughts. He will start by playing cricket against England at the beginning of the Ashes tour at Lillac Hill. It's a tradition that fathers and sons play in that fixture and with Michael Clark now playing for Western Australia, Dad's been invited too. Graves told me on leaving his office during the final game of the season: "See you in the winter - there will be plenty going on". Whatever action Yorkshire take it cannot be worse than this disastrous 2002, a year in which Yorkshire paid a heavy price. In his regular Yorkshire Uncovered column, Kevin Howells followed Yorkshire all summer, reporting for BBC Radio Five Live's Ian Payne Show. |
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