THERE is no doubt Yorkshire will miss the retired Anthony McGrath. Whether it be scoring runs on the field or passing on his wisdom to youngsters and playing the odd practical joke off it, last month’s departure will leave a hole at Headingley.

A right thumb injury forced McGrath, aged 37, to call time on a playing career which professionally began in 1995 and brought him two domestic trophies, four England Test and 14 one-day international caps as well as 20,675 runs and 240 wickets across all formats.

Undoubtedly a Yorkshire legend, he captained them in 2003 and 2009.

It took him the majority of this winter to accept it was time to stop battling against an injury that first surfaced “around 2006/7”.

But we certainly won’t have seen the last of Mags, as he is also known, because he is exploring a career in the media and is midway through his level three coaching qualification.

He is working for Sky Sports News Radio previewing England’s Test series in New Zealand, while a coaching role with Yorkshire is a possibility.

“The decision to finish was definitely tough,” he revealed.

“Ideally, with my form last year and us getting back in division one, I’d like to have played for another two or three years. But my thumb the way it is, it probably wasn’t fair to do that to either the team or myself.

“With the medical advice I got, it was the right time to call it a day even though it took a few months to decide, mainly because I wanted to carry on.

“Coming towards the end of last season, I thought with a bit of rest it would be fine. But when a specialist is telling you that it’s going to pack in at some point and you’ll need an operation, that makes your mind up.”

Although he was not the first name on the team-sheet last season, he returned some vital contributions from 13 County Championship outings, including two hundreds and a memorable match-winning 76 not out against Gloucestershire at Scarborough in August to finish with a bang.

“I was disappointed not to play more, but I was really pleased with how it went when I did play,” he reflected.

There have been plenty of highs during McGrath’s time as a player, including the 2001 Championship win and the 2002 C&G Trophy success at Lord’s when he scored 46 not out during a fifth-wicket stand of 103 with centurion Matthew Elliott to help beat Somerset.

He tells of how Elliott toyed with Andrew Caddick as he moved closer to three figures and his confidence grew.

He also tells a similar tale about batting with Darren Lehmann in a 45-over Sunday League match against Nottinghamshire two days after winning the Championship. Lehmann finished with 191 off 103 balls.

“We put on 172, and I was out for 38,” he remembered, having confirmed a tale that Lehmann continued their Championship celebrations right up to walking out to bat having drunk champagne from his helmet.

“His 334 against Durham was a great knock, but that day he had a bigger freedom than usual. It was incredible to be at the other end.

“I remember if I hit a four or took more than one off a ball, he would tell me off because I didn’t get him on strike.”

Playing for his country 18 times in Test matches and one-day internationals were also major highs in 2003 and 2004, even though he admitted frustration at not playing more than four Tests having scored 201 runs in five innings against Zimbabwe and South Africa.

“To make your England debut at Lord’s when all your family’s there, it was right up there,” he continued.

“It did rankle with me a little bit that I didn’t play more, but if you’d said at the start of my career ‘you can play four Tests or none’, I’d have taken the four Tests. I was lucky enough to play for the best part of 20 years and play some international cricket.”

And of the lows, the winter of 2006/7 when he nearly left Headingley due to a disagreement with the club over its future direction stands out like a sore thumb, if you pardon the pun.

“That was one tough winter,” he sighed with a wry smile and a chuckle.

“It was a tough time for the team between 2004 to 2006 with a lot of change. It wasn’t really a happy time, and we weren’t performing that well. There were a lot of things going on behind the scenes.

“We were in a bit of limbo without a chief executive, then a new one coming in (Stewart Regan), and a lot of players weren’t happy.

“Things were brought to a head at the end of 2006. It was Lehmann’s last season, Richard Dawson left, Michael Lumb left and Mitchell Claydon left.

“I just thought we’d taken our eyes off the ball in terms of being a good cricket team. It seemed to be more about being a business. If you do well as a team, that helps your club. I just thought we weren’t putting all our efforts into building a good team, so I raised the issues.

“Initially the club didn’t agree. After a couple of meetings and where we were going, I just felt it best if I left because I couldn’t see a solution.

“For the next two or three months, myself and the club weren’t saying anything to the press, and I wasn’t going into training. It was as late as February that I was convinced I was going. Ideally I knew I didn’t want to leave, but I felt that it was impossible to carry on with the club’s structure.

“I was away with the Lord’s Taverners in Dubai and got a call from Darren Gough to say he was coming back as captain.

“He said he realised the issues that me and a lot of other players had, and that he fully agreed with what I was saying.

“He wanted us to get back to what we all thought Yorkshire needed. From that point I said ‘I’m under contract and believe what you’re saying, I will stay’.”

But what will it be that McGrath misses the most about playing for Yorkshire?

“The players and the dressing room,” he added. “It goes without saying that I’ll miss the game, but most of my happy memories are within the dressing room or with the lads on the coach after we’ve won. It was my dream job.”