Ottis Gibson has urged his Yorkshire players to seize the moment as they bid for promotion in the Vitality County Championship.
Gibson’s charges have five games remaining this summer. They are third in Division Two, four points behind Middlesex in second and 27 behind leaders Sussex.
The competition resumes tomorrow after a near two-month break for Metro Bank One-Day Cup and the Hundred, and Yorkshire face Sussex at Scarborough (11am) when England star Jonny Bairstow will be available to the hosts for the first time this season.
Next week, they welcome Middlesex to Headingley in another blockbuster encounter.
Earlier this week, stand-in captain Jonny Tattersall described the next fortnight as “season-defining”.
And coach Gibson, who will leave the county at the end of his third season in charge, said: “What I’m hoping is that the players see the opportunity they have.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Yorkshire coach Ottis Gibson is desperate to leave the county with it heading to Division One.
“It’s nothing to do with me. I absolutely don’t want to make it about me. Nothing I’ve ever done in cricket has been about me.
“Fish (Matthew Fisher) is leaving too, but there are a lot of very good players we’re leaving behind, and I want them to see the opportunity that’s in front of them.
“Those who are leaving the club must leave the club in the best place possible and help those who are staying take the club back into the first division, where it belongs.”
Gibson continued: “Five games to go, and we’re three or four points behind third-place.
“Just like the One-Day Cup and you look at opportunities we had to win games, we also had chances to win games in the Championship in the first half of the season.
“We could already be in the top two positions had we taken some of those in the first five games, especially.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Wicketkeeper Jonny Tattersall appeals during Yorkshire’s win over Gloucestershire at Scarborough earlier this summer. Tattersall will captain the county against Sussex this week.
Prior to the break for white ball cricket, Yorkshire had hoisted themselves into the thick of the promotion race with back-to-back wins over Gloucestershire at Scarborough and then Derbyshire at Chesterfield. The first was achieved by an innings and 22 runs, the second by an innings and 204 runs.
Before that, Yorkshire failed to win any of the first seven matches. But Gibson was adamant that four wins would be enough for the county to achieve promotion.
He believes that remains the case.
The Bajan said: “If we win two out of the next five games and draw the rest of them, I’m confident we will be promoted.”
Sussex have been excellent this year. Under the leadership of Paul Farbrace as coach and wicketkeeper-batter John Simpson as captain, they have won five of nine matches added to a trio of draws.
One of those wins came against Yorkshire at Hove in mid-May when the visitors failed to chase a final day target of 183, bowled out for 161 and losing by 21.
Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow during Yorkshire’s clash with Durham last season.
“We should have won that game,” rued Gibson. “It was a massive missed opportunity.
“I also thought we should have won at Gloucestershire. The Glamorgan game, trying to bowl them out on a used pitch and we couldn’t get the wickets.
“These are opportunities the best teams in the country will take eight or nine times out of 10.
“And that’s where we’re trying to work towards.”
While Yorkshire beat Derbyshire at Chesterfield last time out, Sussex beat Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.
Simpson, a winter recruit from Middlesex, is their leading run-scorer with 705, including three hundreds with a best of 205. Fringe England new ball seamer Ollie Robinson is their leading wicket-taker with 27.
Picture by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images. Sussex captain John Simpson.
Robinson’s haul leaves him one behind Ben Coad. The pair are amongst the top three leading wicket-takers in Division Two. Northamptonshire’s Ben Sanderson is out in front with 29, with all three former or current Yorkshire players.
The hosts will be without an overseas player – Shan Masood is on international duty with Pakistan and misses the next two games and Vishwa Fernando’s deal was only for three mid-season fixtures.
But Sussex are expected to field Australian batter Daniel Hughes and Indian seamer Jaydev Unadkat.
