Yorkshire trio Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and Adil Rashid are all set to feature in the star-studded Abu Dhabi T10 League over the next fortnight.
Bairstow and Malan will leave Headingley next week, while Rashid will head to the United Arab Emirates upon the conclusion of England’s T20I series against the West Indies this weekend.
The likes of Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan and former Viking Donavan Ferreira are all taking part in the 10-team tournament which runs from November 21 through to December 2, at the Sheikh Zayed international Stadium, where Yorkshire played champion county fixtures in both 2015 and then 2016.
Bairstow is playing for Team Abu Dhabi alongside Phil Salt, while Malan and Rashid are both lining up for UP Nawabs.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Dawid Malan in Vitality Blast action for Yorkshire earlier this summer.
Former club coach Courtney Winfield-Hill has been appointed as an assistant coach for England’s women on their upcoming tours of South Africa and Australia.
Courtney, Yorkshire star Lauren’s wife, is a former head of the Northern Diamonds Academy programme.
The Queenslander is currently working as an assistant coach in the Women’s Big Bash League with Brisbane Heat, for whom she used to play alongside Lauren.
The latter played the early stages of the ongoing campaign as a replacement overseas player for the Heat.
Courtney left the Diamonds at the end of 2022 and has since been working for the England and Wales Cricket Board as a Talent ID scout on a consultancy basis. She has also worked with the England A and Under 19s squads in a coaching capacity.
After moving to England in 2018, she captained Leeds Rhinos Rugby League side to a Grand Final and Challenge Cup double in 2019. She represented England at the Rugby League World Cup in 2022 having qualified on residency.
England tour South Africa before Christmas and then, afterwards, Australia for the Ashes.
She said: “I am really proud to be a part of the set-up. Since working with England teams, I have been made to feel nothing but welcome and feel the ECB have invested in developing me as a coach.
“The development of the domestic game over the last five years has been brilliant to watch, and I have taken a lot from recent involvements with the England A, development games and the Ireland tour.
“South Africa and the Ashes are two exciting series, and I am really looking forward to linking up and working with the group.”
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Courtney Winfield-Hill (r) speaks at Headingley.
Yorkshire women’s star Sterre Kalis hit a stunning 136 batting at number three for Gordon CC in Sydney on November 2, in a thumping 50-over win against Penrith.
Kalis hit 18 fours and a six in 119 balls, underpinning 328-7. Penrith responded with 125 all out – two catches for Kalis.
She followed that with 52 opening the batting in last Saturday’s T20 win over Parramatta. Gordon’s 124-9 proved enough, with Parramatta finishing on 112-6.
While Kalis is playing first grade women’s cricket, Dom Bess is also in Sydney playing first grade men’s cricket for Mosman. And he is opening the batting.
He scored 49 on debut in a two-day game against Fairfield-Liverpool at the start of the month. He helped Mosman to 274 all out, though the visitors responded with 275-3. Bess bowled 17 overs of off-spin for 72.
He will be at the crease tomorrow on day two of their latest game, at Western Suburbs. The hosts posted 270 all out last Saturday, Bess returning 0-90 from 25 overs. He is nought not out in a reply of 14-0.
Over in Melbourne, Yorkshire men’s quartet of Ben Cliff, Harry Duke, Noah Kelly and Will Luxton are all playing club cricket.
Kelly hit an unbeaten 71 last Saturday to guide Beaumaris to a 50-over win against South Caulfield in the Southern Bayside competition. Beaumaris were chasing 232, and they won by four wickets with 5.2 overs remaining.
He has also played two T20s in recent weeks, scoring 27 and 38 opening the batting in wins.
His are the best recent performances of those in Melbourne, though Ben Cliff has a wicket to his name heading into tomorrow’s second day of Greenvale’s clash with Dandenong, who are 90-2 in reply to 199 all out. Luxton is also playing for Greenvale and scored two in the first innings.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Sterre Kalis bats for the Northern Diamonds at York this summer. She has piled on the runs in Sydney.
Jasmine Nicholls, a member of Yorkshire’s ground-staff, was honoured with the Rising Star award at the ECB’s Business of Cricket Awards at Edgbaston last night.
Nicholls became the first woman to prepare a pitch at Headingley earlier this year when she led the team’s work for the England v Pakistan Women’s IT20 game in May.
A race walker for England, Nicholls has been part of Richard Robinson’s grounds team for the last two seasons.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jasmine Nicholls and Yorkshire’s head of grounds Richard Robinson.
Former Yorkshire overseas T20 fast bowler Lockie Ferguson, who claimed a Roses hat-trick during his time wearing the White Rose, has been at it again this week.
Ferguson, a Yorkshire player in 2021, is currently playing for New Zealand in Sri Lanka, and helped them win a quite remarkable game on Sunday.
In levelling up the short and sharp two-match T20 series in Dambulla, New Zealand were bowled out for 108. But the BlackCaps defended it, bowling the Sri Lankans out for 103.
Ferguson and the spin of Glenn Phillips struck three times apiece, the former striking early to reduce the hosts to 34-4 in the eighth over. He removed Kusals Perera and Mendis and also captain Charith Asalanka.
Ferguson is the only Yorkshire bowler to ever take a T20 hat-trick and did it in early July 2021 when Lancashire were chasing 181 and finished on 171-8.
Ferguson struck with the last three balls of the match.
Picture by Ishara S. Kodikara AFP/via Getty Images. Lockie Ferguson celebrates his hat-trick for New Zealand earlier this week.
Jeremy Lonsdale’s latest book on Yorkshire Cricket was shortlisted but narrowly missed out on the top honour at the recent Cricket Writer’s Club dinner.
Lonsdale, a regular author on the history of the county, had An Unusual Celebrity – The Many Cricketing Lives of Bill Bowes published earlier this year.
Publishers Pitch said: “Despite not fitting the mould of the typical opening bowler, Bill Bowes was a key part of Yorkshire’s dominant 1930s side. After wartime ordeals, he devoted the rest of his life to cricket as a journalist, coach and speaker.”
The winner of the Derek Hodgson Book award, chosen from six contenders, was David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts – Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes.
The CWC dinner was held at the Kia Oval last week.
The book is available via www.pitchpublishing.co.uk.
No Ball, Free hit!…..
Former England off-spinner Robert Croft will be speaking at Headingley this evening as the guest of honour at the Bradford League’s annual presentation dinner.
Croft will entertain over 400 guests in the Howard Suite, where the league will hail a host of performers.
New Farnley won the Premier Division title in 2024, from Woodlands.
Crossflatts and Gomersal were promoted from Division One, replacing relegated duo Bradford and Bingley and Cleckheaton.
Picture by: Matthew Lewis/SWpix.com. Glamorgan’s Robert Croft bats against Tim Bresnan in a 2002 Norwich Union League match at Headingley.
