Players, in order of number of championship appearances:

Adam Lyth

Championship – 4 matches, 220 runs @ 31.42, 1 wicket @ 38.00

Friends Provident – 3 matches, 110 runs @ 36.66

Twenty/20 Cup – 8 matches, 17 runs @ 2.83

Pro40 – 8 matches, 229 runs @ 32.71

If any Yorkshire player had the right to feel aggrieved at lack of first team opportunities during 2009, it was Adam Lyth. As after seemingly establishing himself as a regular the previous year, the re-emergence of Sayers, return to the ranks of Vaughan and blistering form of Bairstow, found his path being blocked again.

Runs continued to flow at second team level, and glimpses of his talent seen in the few chances he was given, mainly in the one day side. Admittedly Lyth can be a frustrating batsman to watch, as an ability to sublimely time the ball is combined with an inclination to play one shot too many early in his innings. But that’s a fault more fully exposed in first team cricket, which consequently is the place where it’s most likely to be fixed.

There is now little more Lyth can learn in the second team, he’s simply too good a player to be held back any longer. One of the conundrums for next season is how to find room for both Lyth and Bairstow in the team. It’s a circle we need to square, as both players are vital to our future, both need to be developed before other counties, with deeper pockets, can offer them better opportunities.

Rana Naved

Championship – 4 matches, 93 runs @ 15.50, 10 wickets @ 41.20

Friends Provident – 6 matches, 121 runs @ 24.20, 8 wickets @ 35.37

Twenty/20 Cup – 8 matches, 63 runs @ 10.50, 11 wickets @ 14.45

Pro40 – 2 matches, 42 runs @ 21.00, 4 wickets @ 22.75

Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Rana Naved. What can you say about his two years at Yorkshire? When he wasn’t injured, he was underperforming in the championship. And when he did better in the one dayers he got picked for Pakistan again.

The one positive is he’s set the bar so low for what we expect to get from an overseas pro, the next one could jump it in a steamroller. Let us never speak of him again.

Steve Patterson

Championship – 3 matches, 15 runs @ 7.50, 3 wickets @ 122.66

Friends Provident – 5 matches, 14 runs, 4 wickets @ 43.75

Twenty/20 Cup – 2 matches, 1 wicket @ 57.00

Pro40 – 3 matches, 3 wickets @ 26.66

If 2008 had seen Patto take a step forward, 2009 saw him take one back again.

He started the season by forming a promising middle overs partnership with Richard Pyrah on the Pro-Arch tour of the UEA and by securing a starting berth in both Championship and Friends Provident sides. But a lack of wickets in all forms of the game saw him slipping back into the second XI by the start of May, with first team chances thereafter few and far between.

You suspect next season will be make or break, a final chance for him to nail down a regular place in the Yorkshire team. The departure of Hoggard and Kruis have created space, but the improvement of younger, and crucially, quicker bowlers in the second team make that task no easier than in previous seasons.

Richard Pyrah

Championship – 3 matches, 59 runs @ 19.66, 4 wickets @ 53.25

Friends Provident – 8 matches, 153 runs @ 38.25, 17 wickets @ 22.76

Twenty/20 Cup – 6 matches, 35 runs @ 8.75, 2 wickets @ 68.00

Pro40 – 7 matches, 80 runs @ 26.66, 5 wickets @ 30.20

It started so well. 18^th March, out in Abu Daubi, 4-29 against Surrey and Martyn Moxon was fielding questions from the press about Pyrah’s chances of making the England ODI squad. Not as bad a call as some might think, given that at that point he’d had two years of unbroken success as one of the best middle over bowlers in the shorter forms of the game, as well as being an electric fielder.

But as the season proper progressed, Rich found it increasingly difficult to take the same amount of wickets as in those preceding years.  It’s a dip in form he needs to get out of fast, as the departure of Hoggard and Kruis leaves him as the second highest one day wicket taker at the club.

His championship chances were few and far between, as in previous years. And the problem he has in securing a regular slot remains the same – his skill set is far better suited to limited overs cricket. An increase in either pace or volume of runs are needed to bridge the gap to the four day game. A difficult task, and one that’s eluded him so far.

James Lee

Championship – 1 match, 2 runs @ 2.00, 2 wickets @ 56.50

Pro40 – 4 matches, 7 wickets @ 16.57

Three years on from his first team debut and Lee seems to have found the consistency at second team level that signals he’s ready to be tried again. In fact, 57 wickets @ 16.33, with 4 five wicket hauls, must be the best return for the colts in many a year. His reward in 2009? A single championship game away at Taunton, one of the flattest pitches on the circuit; against Somerset, probably the best batting unit in the country; and as part of a bowling attack containing only one capped player. It was the equivalent of a hospital pass.

It’s to be hoped that the run of Pro40 games at the end of summer, added to a new three year deal, have built his confidence for next season. He’s going to need it, as the departure of Hoggard has placed a real pressure of expectation on him, and the other colt seamers, to carry their form into the professional game in 2010.

(Player photos: by kind permission, Dave Morton)