Ottis Gibson and Darren Gough are scouring the globe for the next piece in Yorkshire’s overseas player jigsaw for 2023.
The county last week signed Namibian all-rounder David Wiese for the entirety of the Vitality Blast, added to the arrival of Pakistan batter Shan Masood, who will captain across all competitions.
That means the next task in hand is to secure somebody to supplement Masood in the LV= Insurance County Championship. If they are also available to play in the Royal London Cup, that could be business complete.
“We’re looking around now to see who we’re going to get,” said coach Gibson.
“We want somebody who might be available for a long period of time rather than three or four games here or there.
“That, of course, is difficult with the amount of international and franchise cricket that’s being played now, and that’s why we haven’t done anything yet on that side.
“We are giving ourselves a bit more time to look around, to see who we can get that fits what we want.
“If that’s not possible, we’ll have to get somebody for the first two months of the season or whatever and go from there.
“But I’m very pleased with the business we’ve done so far.
T20 World Cup finalist Masood was secured back in August on a two-year deal, moving from Derbyshire after a summer which yielded 1,872 runs across all formats, including two Championship double centuries.
Wiese, 37, will arrive at Yorkshire as a highly experienced and successful short-form specialist.
He played for the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred at Headingley in the summer, working alongside Gibson, and is set to feature in the Abu Dhabi T10 League later this month.
Sandwiched in between, he played for Namibia in the opening stage of the T20 World Cup last month.
“When you look at our squad, the one we’re putting together, it’s quite young,” said Gibson. “And I feel like we need Shan’s experience, we need David’s experience.
“We don’t know yet how much we are going to have someone like a Dawid Malan around, for example.
“To have David’s experience in the T20 Blast, especially in our lower middle order where I feel like last season we could have impacted games a bit better, is fantastic.
“I’m the sort of guy who likes to get my business done early. I like to identify what my team needs in terms of personnel and to go out and get that person.
“To have been able to get Shan done so early and to be able to add David now, I’m really pleased.
“The other thing, he is available for the whole tournament.
“In the Blast just gone, I had about five or six overseas players. That means there’s no fluidity and continuity. Someone comes in for two games and he’s gone, then you don’t know when another guy is coming back into the country.
“The fact it was so stop start with overseas players, that we made it to Finals Day was a remarkable achievement to be honest.
“For my own peace of mind, I would rather know that I’ve got these guys for the whole tournament and then we can really plan around them.”
And on Masood’s availability for 2023, Gibson added: “Everything I’ve been told suggests Shan will be available from the start of the season for most of the season. I don’t believe Pakistan have any Test cricket at all until the back end of the year.”
