Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s men are aiming for similar scenes. Yorkshire’s women lift last season’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup 2 title.
If things go well this weekend, and again in late September, Gavin Hamilton will have been general manager of cricket at Yorkshire and will have two Metro Bank One-Day Cup titles to show for it.
The former Yorkshire all-rounder, also a dual international with England and Scotland, is behind the scenes leading the progression of both the White Rose men’s and women’s teams.
Last summer, the women won their Tier 2 50-over title ahead of what has proved to be an encouraging elevation up to Tier 1.
On Friday, Yorkshire’s men will tackle Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Clifton Park in York in a tasty quarter-final battle. The county have reached the knockouts of this competition two years running, added to a quarter-final finish in this season’s Vitality Blast T20.
“It would mean just as much as it did when I was playing,” said Hamilton, a County Championship winner with the county in 2001.
“Myself and Mags have discussed this every now and again.
“People obviously don’t really see what goes on behind the scenes around how you put the squads together and how you can actually see things maturing on the field. But it’s a really nice feeling.
“Just seeing the development over the last 18 months to two years, we can see we’re going in the right direction on both sides.
“The women’s success last year was thoroughly deserved. I think we outplayed a lot of teams.
“We always knew this year was going to be a massive challenge. But we set our stall out with this is a long-term project, and I don’t see any reason why in the next year or two the women won’t have more success.
“No doubt about that whatsoever, especially with what we’ve got coming through that pipeline.
“The men’s is exactly the same. We’re tracking in the right direction. That’s the bottom line.
“I have no concerns at all around the squad. But, like everything, you get to the end of the year and see where you can improve, what overseas line do we want to take, etc.
“To win something would be huge.
“You just get that monkey off your back of not having won something for a while
“But it would also prove to the players and coaches that we can come through these really tough, high-pressured games in quarter-finals and semi-finals.
“To win something, you have to play well when it counts, like on Friday and hopefully Sunday. It then becomes a habit.
“If we can get to winning that one trophy, I think we’ll have a good two or three years to follow.”
Yorkshire’s men head to York on the back of six group wins from eight, finishing second in Group B to Nottinghamshire’s third in Group A. The Outlaws won five times.
Both sides won their final group games yesterday; Yorkshire at Essex, Notts’ at Surrey.
“Look, we had that really terrible end to the Blast quarter-final against Somerset. It was soul-destroying at the time,” said Hamilton. “We also lost the one-day semi-final to Hampshire last year.
“It’s not ideal for everyone to hear, but these are good stepping stones going forwards. If we keep getting there consistently, it will happen for us.”
And Hamilton added: “We’ve also got a very important block of six Championship matches, which we will be judged on.
“The first couple of games are absolutely crucial, against Hampshire away next week and then Leicestershire at Scarborough. It’s vital that after those, we’re looking up and not down.
“If we can potentially win the One-Day Cup, or get to the final at least, finish in the top four of Division One, a quarter-final in the Blast as well, I’d probably class that as a semi-decent year.”
