YORKSHIRE have slammed the European Central Bank for refusing them permission to play Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s as the build-up to the county’s quest for a hat-trick of Championship titles took a freakish twist yesterday.
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Yorkshire squad versus Middlesex: Ballance, Bresnan, Brooks, Gale (captain), Hodd, Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Plunkett, Rafiq, Sidebottom, Leaning, Willey. “Bairstow – Strauss played for Middlesex for years”.
Yorkshire released a statement on Sunday afternoon criticising the stance, but the European Central Bank insisted the rest period was in the best interests of Bairstow, who was this week named in England’s Test and one-day worldwide squads for next month’s trip to Bangladesh.
“Yorkshire Members, supporters and other stakeholders in the game will wonder why this permission has been refused”, said a statement which made little attempt to hide their anger.
“I’m obviously frustrated about Rash and I said to him I hope he doesn’t regret the decision he has made”.
“I’m not saying we necessarily agree with it, however we have to respect that”.
With Yorkshire needing to win at the home of cricket to have any chance of claiming a third consecutive title, the 28-year-old’s withdrawal had raised eyebrows among the Tykes faithful on social media.
Gale replied: “Yes, he wants to rest”.
“I’ll take 11 lads on the field who will give everything to win”. Yorkshire would hope that Nottinghamshire hold out Somerset to become the first County in over fifty years to win three championships in three years. Middlesex lead Yorkshire by nine points, with Somerset a point further behind.
Bairstow, meanwhile, is not a centrally contracted player – although he will gain a central contract under the new batch announced at the end of the month – but Yorkshire needed the ECB’s permission to play him.
Martyn Moxon, the director of cricket at Yorkshire predicted that Sidebottom will play a huge role for the club in the 2017 season.
Responding to Yorkshire’s protestations, which also pointed to the fact that other centrally contracted England players set to travel to Bangladesh and India had been permitted to represent their counties in crucial matches and that Bairstow had played just five days of cricket in five weeks, an European Central Bank spokesman told the BBC: “We understand Yorkshire’s disappointment but stress that Jonny Bairstow’s absence has been known for some time”. In contrast to Yorkshire’s selection problems, Middlesex will have paceman Tim Murtagh available after Ireland allowed him to stay with the London club rather than have him join their squad for the upcoming one-day worldwide series in South Africa.
He made eight further appearances in white-ball cricket and was named in both squads for England’s upcoming controversial trip to Bangladesh, in which the tourists will play three tour matches, three ODIs and two Tests from 3 October before moving on to India.
“Bairstow has played five days of cricket in five weeks since the Oval Test match, which finished on Sunday August 14”.
Bairstow would have been the ideal replacement for Australian Jake Lehmann, who has flown back to Adelaide to prepare for South Australia’s domestic campaign.
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The decision to rest Root for the rest of the season was happily accepted in recognition of his weight of cricket across all formats and, even when he was left out of England’s one-day series in Bangladesh, the county made no attempt to persuade the European Central Bank or the player himself that he should play at Lord’s.
