So farewell then to Deon Kruis – always willing, always friendly, always named as Mrs Len’s fittest cricketer of the year. And good luck to him for his future career as a cricket commentator in South African. I hope he knows some good synonyms for choke, because he’s going to need them.

Deon’s departure from Yorkshire has been on the radar for two or three years now, but even though he’s not been a regular starter in that time, I suspect he’ll leave a bigger hole in our bowling resources than some people realise. I’m thinking especially of our one-day team, where the two most consistent bowlers this year, Kruis and Rana, have now left. We had a bad enough time of it this summer trying to contain sides, God knows how we’ll fare next.

In the championship his contribution was more in line with our other seamers; well short of wickets but with the same handicaps of benign pitches and poor catching. He also had his usual share of poor luck, beating the bat without taking the edge or the amount of wickets you’d think he should. Something that seems to have bedevilled his spell with Yorkshire, making him a kind of domestic version of Andrew Flintoff, except with the added frustration of having Luke Sutton play and miss against you rather than Adam Gilchrist. Boy, that’s got to fry your nuts after a while.

Personally I’d of played him less in the championship team over the last couple of years, preferring to give some exposure to our second teamers, but, as usual, the fear of relegation drove Yorkshire’s selection towards experience rather than youth. With Deon now gone, and Hoggard and Shahzad stalling over a new contract, it’s to be hoped we haven’t left ourselves overexposed for 2010.

Championship – 9 matches, 131 runs @ 18.71, 22 wickets @ 37.09

Friends Provident – 8 matches, 19 runs @ 6.33, 13 wickets @ 19.46

Twenty/20 Cup – 10 matches, 35 runs @ 35.00, 10 wickets @ 24.10

Pro40 – 4 matches, 4 runs @ 2.00, 4 wickets @ 41.50

(Kruis photo: by kind permission, Dave Morton)