Mark Arthur backing Yorkshire CCC to succeed across all formats in 2021

As he assessed Yorkshire’s prospects at the start of the year, Arthur was brimming with confidence the club chase their first silverware since winning back-to-back County Championship titles in 2014 and 2015.

“I think this is the strongest squad that we’ve had since 2014/2015 and we’re really looking forward to next season,” he said.

“There’s no reason why we can’t win the Championship, the T20 Blast and the 50-over Cup; the squad is strong enough to win all three competitions.

“As we saw last year, with the vagaries of injury and health, these things are never an exact science.

“In the Bob Willis Trophy, for example, we were held back by the loss of several days to inclement weather; we lost something like over 450 overs.

“I’m sure we’d have been in the Lord’s final if we’d had a bit more cricket.

“So we were very strong last year in my opinion but, for various reasons, we didn’t have the chance to prove our worth really.

“But with the addition of Dom Bess (the England off-spin bowler), and the fact that some of our players came of age as a result of their experiences last season, I think that the squad is even stronger now than it was at the beginning of 2020.”

Despite being hit by the weather in the Bob Willis competition, which replaced the Championship on a one-off basis due to the summer being restricted by coronavirus to just two months, Yorkshire topped the North Group to come as close as possible to reaching the Lord’s final.

The winners of the other two regional groups, Essex and Somerset, advanced instead by virtue of obtaining more points; Essex took the title by securing first-innings advantage in a match that ended as a draw.

There was no 50-over cricket due to the pandemic, although Yorkshire’s T20 form was not so impressive.

They finished second-bottom of the North Group and have now gone 19 years without winning a limited-overs cup of any description; only once since then, in fact, have they reached the final of a limited-overs event – the 2012 T20 Blast, when they went down to Hampshire in Cardiff.

Yorkshire hope to have Nicholas Pooran, the West Indies batsman/wicketkeeper, back to assist them in T20 this summer, although overseas recruitment is even more of an inexact science than usual owing to an international schedule not only clogged up like a drain but also now badly affected by fixture pile-ups and cancellations caused by Covid-19.

Yorkshire have been there or thereabouts in 50-over cricket over the years, but they remain keen to improve a T20 record sometimes at variance with the talent they possess and the ambition they have shown in terms of recruitment.

The Championship, as ever, remains the most important tournament for the players and staff, and is the competition most prized by the Yorkshire membership.

Arthur hopes that the club is now on the verge of a period of sustained success and that 2021 can be the catalyst for it.

“I think that’s the challenge for us,” he continued. “Now we’ve got back to having a balanced and strong squad, the key challenge to the coaching staff and the players themselves is to make sure that we iron out any dips in form and remain strong year after year.

“Certainly, we hope to have learned from the dip that we had in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

“There was definitely a dip during that period, even though we managed to retain our First Division status in the Championship through that time.

“Last year was a difficult year for obvious reasons, and now I think we’re ready to go again.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to win trophies; that’s what we’re looking to do.

“We only won two Championships in the 2010-2019 period, and we want to win many more during this decade.”

Bess represents a quality signing, even if he is bound to be away with England from time to time.

Ditto Dawid Malan, who joined the club in late 2019 and made a favourable impact with the bat in the Bob Willis Trophy, not least when scoring a career-best double century against Derbyshire.

“Dawid Malan has shown not only Yorkshire supporters but also England supporters what a fantastic all-round cricketer he is, and we’re lucky to have him,” said Arthur.

“His attitude and professionalism has been first-class.

“We’ve made some good signings in recent times and also developed our existing players along with the next generation of Yorkshire pathway players, too.

“I think that we’re in a really good place.”