Michael Lumb chose the earliest possible moment in Yorkshire's one-day season to show to a wider audience that here is a young batsman with a potential England future ahead of him.

Opening the batting for Phoenix in their first National League match against Warwickshire Bears at Edgbaston he compelled his television audience to take note with a range of strokes right out of the top drawer.

Then, in the Championship clash with Hampshire at West End, he batted with supreme composure against the formidable pace of Wasim Akram and Alan Mullally to rack up an unbeaten 115, his third century for the county.

Yorkshire fans, of course, are already well acquainted with the strongly built left-hander's natural ability with the bat but influential people within the game are also now giving him admiring glances.

Watching him tear Warwickshire's bowling apart, one former distinguished player commented that Lumb put him in mind of Australian Test ace Matthew Hayden with the way he dominated the attack.

Whereas nearly every other batsman in the match struggled to time the ball on a dampish pitch, Lumb fired off a salvo of stunning shots, most of them racing over the wet outfield and a few going straight over the top.

Only four of his first 52 runs failed to come in boundaries and by the time he was out for 61 he had rattled off ten fours and two sixes. He had faced just 40 balls - exactly the same number which his opening partner, Matthew Wood, had required to graft his way to 11 without a single shot reaching the fence.

What Lumb needs to do now is to top up his levels of concentration because it is momentary lapses which sometimes bring about his downfall.

After superbly playing Warwickshire's pacemen, he took a big heave at left-arm spinner Ashley Giles' second ball and was bowled when a little more care could have set him up for a brilliant century.

He did not repeat that lapse against Hampshire, however, being content to leave the smouldering aggression to Darren Gough while he exercised every care.

The 23-year-old Lumb is, of course, the Johannesburg-born son of former Yorkshire opener Richard who now lives in that city with his South African wife Sue.

Michael is wise to name his dad as one of the players he most admires because Richard was a splendid player in his own right and only just fell short of playing for England.

They are one of only four sets of fathers and sons to have scored centuries for Yorkshire but it would be stretching it to say that Michael is following in his father's footsteps because the two are as different as chalk and cheese when it comes to their batting styles.

Not only do they bat the opposite way round to each other but Richard was far more methodical and down-to-earth than Michael, although he could score quickly when set and was one of the best legside players in the game.

But Richard did not have the natural attacking talent with which Michael is blessed and if the younger man can curb some of his wilder instincts without cramping his style then he could have a great future ahead of him.

If so, England will be relieved that Michael decided to develop his game over here after turning out for South Africa in the Under-19s' World Cup and now all of his ambitions are with Yorkshire and England.

When former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Jack Birkenshaw was coach of Leicestershire in 2001 he looked on admiringly from the players' balcony at Headingley as Lumb cruised to his maiden century.

"He's so good, he'll go on to play Test cricket for England," said Birkenshaw with conviction.

It was an opinion which would have remained unchanged had he seen him turning on the style so lavishly at either Edgbaston or West End.

Updated: 10:32 Saturday, May 03, 2003