TWO talented teenagers who have just scratched the surface of Yorkshire first team cricket look set to have big futures with the club if they continue with their current rate of progress.

They are 18-year-old fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad, from Bradford, and Liversedge-born leg-spinner Mark Lawson, who is also 18.

Shahzad made his surprise debut for Yorkshire Phoenix against Worcestershire Royals three weeks ago while Lawson has been included in Yorkshire's Championship squad for the last couple of matches and would have played at Chelmsford if captain Craig White, on his own admission, had not misread the pitch and left him out.

Shahzad, of course, became the first Yorkshireman from an ethnic background to play for the county and the Asian community could not have wished for a better ambassador.

Not only did he earn praise from director of cricket David Byas for his brave and aggressive spell with the new ball, but he also communicated superbly with the media as he spoke of the challenges which lay ahead.

It was not surprising in view of his articulate style that Ajmal should find himself interviewed on television during the Headingley Test match and once again he did himself and Yorkshire proud.

Yorkshire's director of operations, Geoff Cope, recently spoke of the pressures imposed on young cricketers from Shahzad's background and suggested that one such promising player once on the club's books had quit the game after being hounded by the media.

It is true that Yorkshire have worked hard in trying to develop an ethnic player right through from the Academy to the first team but never to my knowledge has a youngster had too much pressure applied on him by the press.

The problem in certain cases in the past has been that Yorkshire, eager to show that there is no racism in the club, have pushed players forward who then either have moved on elsewhere or were below the high standard required to make a career out of first team cricket.

Shahzad, however, would appear to be good enough and mature enough, and he could be the first of several ethnic youngsters now attached to Yorkshire to become fine players, including Academy batsman Haroon Rashid and his younger brother Adil, a right hand bat and leg-spinner, and all-rounders Bilal Ajaz and Sarfaraaz Mahomed.

All these teenagers come from the Bradford area and they will be spurred on by seeing the progress which Shahzad has made.

If Shahzad is a 'new' type of cricketer for Yorkshire then so is Mark Lawson because leg-spinners are a rare breed indeed within the White Rose county and the only one to make a name for himself was Huddersfield-born Eddie Leadbeater, who captured 201 first class wickets between 1949 and 56 without ever gaining his cap.

Peter Kippax, also from Huddersfield, who had a long association with Harrogate, was another master leg-break bowler, but he was restricted to four games for Yorkshire between 1951-62, although he would have been an exciting prospect were he just beginning his career now.

Mark has played for England Under-19s and represented his country in this winter's Under-19s World Cup in Bangladesh and his prospects with Yorkshire look good because leg-spinners are coming into their own.

World class players like Shane Warne, Mushtaq Ahmed, Stuart MacGill and Muttiah Muralitharan have shown just how effective good wrist spinners are these days and how they can clean up against even the strongest of batting sides.

Orthodox off-spinners struggle on today's pitches to keep batsmen under control but accurate leg-break bowlers, who turn the ball away from the right hander, are increasingly sought after.

It was such a pity that Lawson was left out against Essex because it would have been fascinating to see how he would have stood comparison with Pakistani Danish Kaneria, whose leg-spin flummoxed Yorkshire to such an extent that he bagged match figures of 13-186, the best against the county by any side in 15 years.

Fortunately, Darren Lehmann's left-arm spin and Richard Dawson's off-spin were sufficiently strong to see Yorkshire home but Kaneria is a class act and Lawson will be hoping he can return similar figures himself one day.

Yorkshire have a reputation for not being able to play leg-spin but with Lawson around they should now be getting plenty of practice in the nets.

Updated: 10:50 Saturday, June 12, 2004