Cricket: Tim Bresnan 'excited and delighted' to be confirmed as Yorkshire vice-captain

Tim Bresnan, the former England all-rounder, has spoken of his delight and excitement after being confirmed as Yorkshire's new vice-captain for the 2017 season.
Tim BresnanTim Bresnan
Tim Bresnan

Bresnan, last season's player of the year, was offered the role by new skipper Gary Ballance after an off-season of change at Headingley, which saw Andrew Gale promoted to head coach.

Yorkshire have not had an official vice-skipper for several seasons and Bresnan, speaking from Australia as his Perth Scorchers side prepare for their Big Bash final against Sydney Sixers tomorrow, admitted: “I was surprised to be asked to be honest.

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“Gary phoned me and asked ‘I’ve got to ask you something mate, would you be vice-captain for me’ and I was like ‘yes, I’m over the moon’. It was a bit of a shock because we haven’t really named one over the past few years. It just came out of the blue; I never even thought that Gaz would be having one.

"It does make sense though if he gets called up for internationals. I’m immensely proud and it will be great to work with him and Galey. I’ll just do whatever is required of me.

“As such pretty much everyone in the team is in the senior leadership group. In the past five or six years we’ve just done it like a Chinese parliament. We’ve basically just talked through what was going wrong and how we were going to improve as a collective and we’ve done everything as a group really.

"There’s never been any sort of group that has sat down separately, we’ve always sat down as a whole to decide which direction we’re heading in.”

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Former skipper Gale took over the head coach role from Jason Gillespie, with the White Rose county planning a fresh assault on all three formats of the game after coming so close to their third successive Championship title last season.

"I’m immensely excited for the new season," Bresnan added.

"Whenever there’s change, some people are put off by it. Some people see change as a new challenge or chapter. I think that’s exactly what we’re going through and what we’ve got. Gaz is going to bring something a little bit different than what Andrew Gale did as captain, and Galey as a coach is going to bring something different than what Dizzy [Gillespie] did.

Change is a good thing as long as you’re all pulling in the same direction and singing from the same sheet. I’m always excited to represent Yorkshire and excited to see what the future brings under the new regime, as it were. It think it’s going to be really good and we’re going to play a positive brand of cricket as we have done, with Galey being immensely positive and Gary knowing exactly what’s expected of him to be able to succeed. I think we’ve got the right mix.”

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of cricket, added: “He’s now a very experienced and mature cricketer and we’re seeing that now with both the bat and the ball. With his experience of both domestic and international cricket he’s the ideal vice-captain to work alongside Gary. I think they get on well together and that they’ll be a good mix.

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“Tim will have a very important role, particularly as that link between the players and the captain; he’ll fulfil that very well because he’s an ideal candidate. As with Gary, he’s got the respect of the dressing room and he’s not afraid to say the harsh words when they need to be said and at the same time he is very supportive of his team-mates.

"It’s going to be a really important role for him to fulfil and I’m sure he’ll do it very well.”