Yorkshire hand captaincy and two-year extension to Steven Patterson

It's been a busy week for Yorkshire as they named fast bowler Steven Patterson as skipper for the remainder of the 2018 season, a day after David Willey signed a one-year-extension to stay with the club until the end of 2019. Patterson, who had earlier taken over the captaincy duties from Gary Ballance, has signed a two-year extension in the process, the club confirmed late on Friday (June 15).

"It's a proud honour and a privilege to be asked to do the job," Patterson told yorkshireccc.com on Friday. "I think Gary (Ballance) has done a fantastic job over the last year or two, but I think giving him the freedom to just go out there and concentrate on his cricket hopefully means we can get the best out of him as a batsman. We know he's one of the best in the country when he does that."

The 34-year-old has led Yorkshire in eight games so far this season, winning six of them. In their latest win in the play-off against Essex on Thursday, the captain led from the front with figures of 4 for 36. "I've enjoyed it all so far," he said. "At the start of the competition I wasn't quite sure how long I was going to be doing it for. You don't overthink it when you're out there on the field and we've managed to build a bit of momentum as it has gone on, but I've enjoyed that side of it and winning a few games. Obviously now that I know I'm doing it for the rest of the summer, I can get my teeth stuck into it and make a positive contribution to the teams."

Patterson made his debut at Yorkshire in 2005 and since, has been a major force in their title-winning campaigns in 2014 and 2015. He first signed a one-year extension last year but now with this two-year deal, he aims to finish playing at this club. "As a young lad it was always my dream to play for the Club,. Once you start playing and working your way through, it then became my goal to spend all my career with the Club. For me, at the end of last year I knew I wasn't finished with cricket, I knew there was plenty more in the tank so to speak and felt I had a bit of unfinished business after a disappointing year," he noted.

"I renewed my efforts with the view that I wanted to play for a bit longer. So to be in a position to be able to sign for two more years and knowing I'll finish my career at the Club is something I'm very proud of and will be able to look back on in the future with fondness."

Captaincy though hasn't taken a toll on the paceman and he seems to be revelling in the new found role. With 358 wickets under his belt from 134 first-class games, Patterson aims to share his knowledge with the younger members at the club and help them strengthen their rich legacy. "As an experienced player I don't think the captaincy will make a huge difference to my performance. You know what is expected of you and that shouldn't change really. You do have a little bit more responsibility towards the other players; to support and help them where possible, be it all little bit of advice or encouragement. From what I've learned so far, the main role is to be able to support and help your teammates as much as possible.

"I'd like to hope that people already saw me as a senior player and somebody they could approach, talk to or ask advice and I hope the fact I've been made captain doesn't change people's relationships with me because it won't for me towards them. Hopefully they just see me as the same guy I was a couple of weeks ago; a senior player who will do anything I can to support and help them. Hopefully collectively we can go out there and have some success."

Ballance, who had been the skipper until a month back, congratulated Patterson on the new appointment and extended his support to him at the club. "Patto has been really good over the last few weeks, he's done a great job and seems to be enjoying it so I just think it's the right thing to do going forwards. I'm always happy to help out in any way, whether it be Patto with the captaincy or the young lads needing advice. We've got plenty of senior players in the group so there's a lot of good cricket brains going around."

The first XI coach Andrew Gale too, had words of praise for the new skipper. "Patto is a vastly experienced cricketer who has the respect of the dressing room, he has done an excellent job throughout the Royal London One-Day Cup competition and I'm sure he will continue that in to the other two formats."