Yorkshire's young players are to be given the opportunity to press their claims on the club's pre-season tour of Australia while five of their senior colleagues rest up after their winter exertions with England in South Africa.

Skipper David Byas will lead a squad of 15 on the tour which begins on March 10 and includes seven one-day games and two matches over a longer period.

Ripon-born opening batsman John Inglis, 20, will be eager to show that he is worth a try-out at first team level and other youngsters determined to make an impact include 22-year-old Doncaster batsman Simon Widdup and two 18-year-olds in wicketkeeper Matthew Thewlis, from Barnsley, and seamer Greg Lambert, from Castleford.

Off-spinner James Middlebrook will be trying to win back the place he lost to left-armer Ian Fisher after breaking his finger at the start of last season, and all-rounder Gary Fellows will be keen to hold on to the regular first team spot he secured towards the end of the summer.

Director of coaching Martyn Moxon said he had spoken to Gavin Hamilton to see if he wanted to join the squad in view of the limited amount of cricket he had played with England in South Africa but the all-rounder had indicated he would prefer to take a break from the game.

"It is quite understandable that he should want a few weeks off and we look forward to him returning fully refreshed and ready to go," said Moxon.

"It has been frustrating for Gavin kicking his heels so much and I hope he is given the chance to play now that England have moved on to Zimbabwe for the series of one-dayers.

"It is a young squad we are taking to Australia but we are still not sure who will be involved with England this summer and it is quite possible that several of our youngsters may have to be brought into the first team, so we need to take a look at them before the season starts."

Yorkshire are still working on trying to remodel Paul Hutchison's action in the hope that the left-arm swing bowler will not suffer further back injury and he is making sufficient progress to suggest he would be fit for the start of the season.

Anthony McGrath, Matthew Wood and Ryan Sidebottom have all returned home after being part of an MCC tour of Bangladesh.

"Anthony scored a lot of runs and Matthew did well in the second half, while Ryan bowled well in unhelpful conditions," said Moxon. "We have received excellent reports from the MCC on all three of them."

Yorkshire have been able to go ahead with registering Darren Lehmann after confirmation from the Australian Cricket Board that they had agreed to let the left-handed batting star play for the county this season.

Lehmann will miss the start of the season and a spell during August if he is called up for Australia's two one-day international series of against South Africa.

The batting ace returns to Yorkshire on a two-year contract after being an outstanding success with the club in 1997 and 1998, but he was unavailable last season because of World Cup duties.

Yorkshire's squad for Australia is: David Byas, Richard Blakey, Richard Harden, Paul Hutchison, Anthony McGrath, Gary Fellows, Ian Fisher, Matthew Hoggard, James Middlebrook, Ryan Sidebottom, Matthew Wood, John Inglis, Matthew Thewlis, Simon Widdup, Greg Lambert.

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