Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. General manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton has been speaking about 2026 recruitment and Yorkshire’s recent form in Championship and One-Day Cup cricket.
Gavin Hamilton says Yorkshire’s men’s recruitment plans ahead of 2026 are currently centred around trying to get their overseas players in place.
The county’s general manager of cricket was speaking at The 1st Central County Ground, Hove today, where he is for the duration of the Rothesay County Championship clash with Sussex, which saw day one abandoned without a ball bowled.
Hamilton has made the journey south – via New Road, where he watched Yorkshire’s women win the Tier 2 Metro Bank One-Day title by beating Glamorgan in a one-sided final yesterday.
The former England and Scotland all-rounder was delighted by that result, as he has been with the upturn in form for the men’s team during the second half of the summer.
“Our priority at the moment, and we’re working quite hard on it, is making sure our overseas players are in place,” he said.
“I spoke to Mags (Anthony McGrath) about it the other day, and we’ve had seven overseas players playing for us this season. And that’s actually aligned with a lot of other counties.
“Some have had seven, eight, nine or 10, which I didn’t realise to be honest. It shows how tricky it can be.
“But, yes, we’re working hard at present on next year.
“We’ve looked at signing domestically, and we weren’t successful with a couple. But that’s the nature of the beast.
“I don’t think we’ll be going down that route now. I think it’s a little bit late, and we don’t just want to do it for the sake of it. I’d be surprised if we pick up anyone now.
“We’re just trying to see where the overseas will fit into our plans.
“Obviously with Matt Milnes and Jordan Thompson moving on, we’re going to need a bowler without a shadow of doubt. We may even need two.
“We’ll see how it goes.”
Day one at Hove was kiboshed due to a combination of a wet outfield and high winds preventing the ground-staff from getting onto the field to begin the mopping up process, with safety concerns at play.
Umpires Tom Lungley and Jack Shantry regularly inspected in the Hove sunshine but were ultimately thwarted, eventually calling things off just after their 3.30pm inspection, their fifth of the day.
Yorkshire came into this penultimate round fixture unbeaten in five Championship games, winning two of those, and on the back of a run to the semi-finals of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Hamilton said: “The Essex win was a huge win for us, massive. I think it was a big turnaround performance wise.
“I’ll also go back to Trent Bridge when Beany got that double hundred and also Rev got his 90-odd and then he kicked on from there.
“Then, Surrey at Scarborough. I was there for the full four days, and you could just see that something clicked.
“I don’t know what it was, it’s difficult to put your finger on. But the lads stood up and competed against the best team in the country, and it was great to see.
“They took that confidence into the Sussex game and won that well.
“All of a sudden, the momentum picks up and they take it into the 50-overs.
“The last eight weeks, it was one of those where you think, ‘Had we started like this, you never know’. Even the T20 campaign may have been different.
“There are a lot of ‘what ifs’.
“But it was always going to be a progress year and a learning curve. Mags is big on continuing to get better, and we have throughout the year. I can’t fault it.
“Last week wasn’t our best by any means at Taunton. It was a bit of a scattered game. That’s the best way I can describe it. We bowled pretty poorly in the first dig. To only get one bonus point from that wasn’t ideal.
“Look, we can’t look too deeply into that.
“But the weather’s going to play a big part over the next couple of weeks, and we have to be on it when we get out there and get as many points as we can.”
