ONE club man Steve Patterson admits helping to develop a new Yorkshire four-day captain is a big part of his role over the next two years.

Patterson, 37, has just signed a new contract, keeping him at Emerald Headingley until the end of 2022.

The county’s four-day captain will continue in the role next summer - a job he inherited from Gary Ballance midway through the 2018 campaign.

However, he admits 2022 is up for discussion: “I’m open to any and all suggestions because my overriding goal is to leave the team in a better place than when I found it,” said the seamer, who has taken 420 first-class wickets.

“I’m certainly going to be doing it next year, but what happens in 2022 will depend on how things go.

“The one thing I’ve always had in mind is that someone is going to have to replace me as captain. And it’s a big job. If anything, you look forward to 2022 and I’m 18 months older, it might be that I don’t play every game.

“It could be that I captain when I play and we breed a new captain when I don’t. It’s not something which has really been discussed yet.

“When I took over, we were in the process of losing a lot of senior players and had a lot of youngsters.

“My first port of call was to steady the ship a bit really, and we’re now in a position to be competing at the right end of the competition. We have to continue that development, but I’m quite flexible with how that happens.”

Smoothing the way for a prolonged period of success at Emerald Headingley is something which greatly excites the Beverley-born player, who has spoken in the past about taking the latter stages of his career one year at a time.

He continued: “A big part of the reason why this deal is two years, from both myself and the club, is that although we have an exciting crop of young bowlers, it is not 100 percent sure they can be relied on physically just yet.

“Ben Coad was outstanding again this summer, but he missed a few games through injury. That’s happened for the last couple of years.

“Matthew Fisher was superb in that first game at Durham, but he picked up a minor injury and missed some cricket. Matthew Waite’s shoulder injury ruled him out of the entire summer.

“Martyn Moxon (director of cricket) made it clear to me that he and Andrew Gale (coach) want me around the squad for a couple more years, partly for that reason. I love playing and helping bring these young lads through.”