Old wants Yorkshire job

12:52pm Saturday 13th January 2007

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YORKSHIRE CCC have already received a shoal of applications for the two new posts of head of professional cricket and director of cricket development.

Former South African pace ace Allan Donald was among the first to put his name forward to take charge of the players at all levels, and among the latest to apply is former Yorkshire and England fast bowler Chris Old, who currently runs a fish restaurant in Cornwall.

Middlesbrough-born Old, 58, has slapped in an application for both advertised jobs but he is particularly keen to be deeply involved with the first team.

Old was undoubtedly one of Yorkshire's finest fast bowlers, taking 647 first class wickets for the county in 222 matches at a miserly 20.72 runs apiece while in 46 Test matches he claimed 143 wickets at 28.11.

He played for Yorkshire between 1966 and 1982 and has first hand experience of all the controversies which appear to go hand in hand with being associated with the White Rose county.

In 1981, for instance, he was appointed captain but in June of the following summer he was suddenly ousted because of a run of poor results and replaced at the age of 50 by Ray Illingworth, who was managing the club at the time.

Yorkshire's chief executive, Stewart Regan, confirmed that there had been a very good response for both posts and that the applications included several top names.

"The deadline for applications is January 21 and at the moment we are just sifting through the applications we have received and acknowledging them," said Regan.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire's 19-year-old left-hander, Adam Lyth, from Whitby, has received a late call-up for England Under-19s tour of Malaysia from January 23 - February 24. He has been chosen as a replacement for Surrey's Rory Hamilton-Brown, who has gone down with a shoulder injury. Also selected for the tour is his Yorkshire colleague, wicketkeeper-batsman Greg Wood, from Huddersfield.

Lyth did well for Yorkshire Seconds last season and he made his first-team debut in the final Pro-40 League match against Hampshire at Headingley when he hit 23.

In addition to their two-day friendly fixture with Derbyshire at Headingley on April 10 and 11, Yorkshire have now arranged a one-day practice match with Durham at Riverside on April 13.