Change is a-foot at Yorkshire County Cricket Club: Head Coach Jason Gillespie is to leave the county at the end of the season and return to his native Australia.
The news broke the day after Yorkshire lost their Royal London One Day Cup semi-final against Surrey, but this is not how the record of the shorts and sun-hat wearing antipodean should be remembered.
Gillespie joined the club in 2011, just as Yorkshire were relegated to Division Two of the County Championship. The turnaround that his presence sparked was notable, to say the least – the club were promoted back to Division One by the end of the 2012 season and finished runners-up to Durham in the Championship the following year.
The following two years would record successive County Championship wins and an astonishing record of just two lost games over the course of the two seasons. With a four-day set up in which teams play 16 games each season, it’s worth noting that the team has lost just five matches over the course of the five seasons (including the current one) that Gillespie has been at the helm.
The 2016 season will see him able to boast semi-finals in the two limited overs competitions and, provided it all goes to plan, a third successive win in the Championship.
To comment on the reasons behind his move back to Australia would be pure speculation at this point, so the Yorkshire faithful must simply (metaphorically in most cases) shake his hand and thank him for his services to their beloved county.
