The green fades from the leaves, and the leaves from the trees in their turn. The first migrating flocks of pumpkin spice thinkpieces appear on the horizon. And Yorkshire announce plans to ‘sit down and talk about’ Adil Rashid’s future. Yes, dear reader, another autumn is truly upon us here in the UK.
Since Bradford-born leg-spinner Rashid became an international regular as part of England’s rise from the rubble of the 2015 World Cup, only six bowlers have taken more wickets in men’s international cricket. Only two of them, Kagiso Rabada and Mitchell Starc, have taken their wickets at a faster rate. And precisely 0 bowlers have taken more in One Day International cricket - not Rabada, not Starc, not Rashid Khan, not Jasprit Bumrah; nobody.
And he has been a significant part of Yorkshire’s re-emergence as a force to be reckoned with in county cricket:
2013
As newly promoted Yorkshire narrowly finish second to Durham, only Gary Ballance and Michael Lumb in the whole division score more hundreds than Rashid’s 3.
Only Chris Rogers records a higher batting average from as many innings.
Among all spinners in the division, only Jeetan Patel and Ollie Rayner take more wickets than his 29.
2014
Yorkshire go one better, losing only one game to seal their first Championship title in 13 years.
Rashid takes 46 wickets at 26.06, second among spinners only to Patel in terms of wickets but at a better average and significantly better strike rate.
He again makes vital contributions with the bat, with only Adam Lyth among his team-mates and 10 others in the division, all top-order batters, scoring more hundreds.
2015
Yorkshire win back-to-back titles for the first time in 47 years, again only losing one game and racking up a record number of wins and points for a 16-game season.
Rashid only plays 7 Championship games as he became an increasingly vital part of England’s white-ball set-up, but is still second among spinners for Division One wickets only to the perenially impressive Patel, once again taking his wickets at a significantly better strike-rate than the former New Zealand international.
His 127 against Durham coming in at 79/5 with a second innings lead of only 85 sets up a big win; his 99 against Somerset coming in at 117/5 with a second innings lead of only 70 helps make sure that the game cannot be lost; and his 53 against Sussex ensures that Yorkshire get to a competitive first innings total after losing 3/34 in 15 overs, and eventually secure another thumping win.
So why does a proven international performer, the best wrist-spinner England have ever had, and a key part of the most successful period in his county’s modern history, have to keep proving himself to the Yorkshire heirarchy and a large part of the Yorkshire fanbase year-in-year-out?
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Yorkshire haven’t always served Rashid well. In the promotion year of 2012, he had his attitude baselessly called into question by then club president and noted blunderbuss Geoffrey Boycott for a drop in form that had seen Rashid left out of a Championship game for the first time, and then play only 4 out of 9 games in the run-in.
And on the eve of the next season, the first back in Division 1, the Independent published quotes Rashid had given months earlier expressing his concerns about a lack of faith in him from captain Andrew Gale under an incendiary headline that bore no relation to the comments in question, forcing Yorkshire to publicly deny a rift. Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon, to his credit, did praise Rashid’s application throughout winter training.
But the real issues began at the very end of the 2016 season.
The last game of that season saw the mouthwatering prospect of Yorkshire, Middlesex and Somerset all with realistic ambitions winning the title, and Yorkshire travelling to Lord’s for a table-topping shootout. Rashid had firmly established himself as England’s leading spinner, playing every game of their oh-so-close World T20 campaign and bowling a fine spell of 1/23 in the final, and bowling more ODI overs than anyone in the world as Eoin Morgan’s 50-over juggernaut began to get up to full speed. And in the Championship, Rashid had taken 32 wickets in 10 games at 33.84 and scored 393 runs at 28.07, earning himself a call-up to England’s Test squads to tour Bangladesh and an expected one for the subsequent series against India.
But all was not well. Rashid had been told by the ECB to save himself for the gruelling winter ahead, but with no central contract, this put him in a tricky position with Yorkshire as the title decider approached. And to pull Rashid in yet another direction, his grandmother was gravely ill. Not knowing whether she’d be alive when he returned from England duty, Rashid reluctantly made himself unavailable for the Middlesex game.
But somehow, this came into the public domain as Yorkshire blasting Rashid for ‘opting out’, accompanied by thinly veiled public criticism by Gale (told you to remember the name). Rashid’s own statement emerged the next day explaining personal circumstances that he should never have had to reveal on anything other than his own terms, but it barely registered amid a disapproving chorus of ‘ungrateful’, ‘lazy’ and ‘selfish’. Given Rashid’s unique skills and long service, one might ask who’s really lacking gratitude.
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Yorkshire and Gale’s troubling attitudes towards players of colour is an unavoidable factor in all of this. Yorkshire were so exclusionary that they didn’t even allow players born in other parts of England to play for them until the early 1990s, which combined with the notorious torrent of racial abuse too often heard on the Western Terrace did nothing to attract any of Yorkshire’s huge Indian or Pakistani heritage communities. It wasn’t until July 2004 that Ismail Dawood became the first British-born Asian to play Championship cricket for Yorkshire, but he’d played for three other counties before that game at Scarborough.
Yorkshire didn’t give a debut in any format to an Asian graduate of their own academy till Ajmal Shahzad played in the then 45 over List A competition in May 2004. And at first-class level? Why, that was Rashid himself, who needed an injury to Darren Lehmann to make his Championship bow, which he marked with a match-winning 6/64. But that was not until July 2006 - 143 years after the club’s formation, and 116 after the County Championship began.
Shahzad’s Yorkshire career ended abruptly in 2012 when he left on loan weeks into the season - while Gillespie praised his pace and skill just the week before, he seemed to be the only person at Yorkshire who valued the Huddersfield-born fast bowler. Fitting the theme of club leaders unfairly criticising players in public, Colin Graves, then Yorkshire chairman, had used the word ‘disgrace’ to describe Shahzad’s performances when the latter was recovering from a serious ankle injury. Shahzad went on to play for four counties in five years, and is now Head Coach at the MCC.
And what of the first player of colour to captain a Yorkshire side, Azeem Rafiq? An off-spinner who flights and turns the ball, is adaptable across formats and conditions, is very useful with the bat, has a keen tactical mind and, unlike Rashid, is not on England’s radar and so will be available all season should be of great value to any county.
But despite important contributions to Yorkshire’s promotion and run to T20 Finals Day in 2012, he was released in 2014 amid injuries and lack of opportunity. While he came back to Yorkshire in 2016, the story repeated itself, this time with the added burden of horrendous personal circumstances as he and his wife suffered the death of their unborn child. As with Rashid, Rafiq was left to fend for himself as Yorkshire released him in 2018 with a remarkably cold statement for one who had suffered so much. Rafiq has since played one first-class game in Pakistan for Sui Southern Gas Corporation, and has spent this past English summer playing Minor Counties cricket for Lincolnshire.
As for Andrew Gale, the man who in his capacity as Yorkshire’s long-time captain and current Head Coach has been responsible for the management and development of these players and others as first-team professionals for 9 years…well, what else should we expect from a man who sees nothing wrong in aiming an immigration based slur at a player of colour and telling him to ‘fuck off back to [his] own country’, treated the disciplinary hearing as nothing more than an impediment to him celebrating, and has consistently portrayed himself as the real victim?
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For Rashid, his subcontinental Test winter of 2016 was a qualified success. While he was expensive as leg-spinners can be, he troubled India’s batters on pitches that were not especially spin-friendly in the first two Tests, and his returns only dropped off when England bafflingly did not retain the services of spin bowling coach Saqlain Mushtaq for the whole series. With country as with county, a lack of understanding of the role of a leg-spinner by those making the decisions meant Rashid was not set up to succeed.
This myopia was thrown into even sharper relief by the near evangelical belief shown in him by Morgan. He has only missed one of England’s ODIs since the start of 2017, and firmly established himself as a world-class white-ball spinner and a non-negotiable part of England’s continuing rise to the top of the 50-over format.
Keenly aware of the gulf between how England perceived him in red ball and white ball cricket, Rashid decided to take up only a white-ball contract with Yorkshire in 2018. Cue renewed grumbles from those who were still bitter about the missed 2016 season finale. Peak Grumble was reached a few months later, when newly appointed England selector Ed Smith selected Rashid for England’s Test squad to play India, and Rashid was painted as everything that was wrong with modern cricket and a walking middle finger to the sanctity of the County Championship, all for the crime of being selected for a Test series.
Even his own county, who one could have been forgiven for assuming would be happy for a long-serving player to get such an honour (to say nothing of the money counties get for producing England players), joined the disapproving chorus. Chief executive Mark Arthur became the latest in the long line of Yorkshire decision-makers enumerated above to publicly denounce Rashid, further souring the relationship between player and county and leading to opportunistic public courting by Durham CEO Ian Botham.
Rashid performed usefully in England’s 4-1 series victory, and that autumn combined to lethal effect with Moeen Ali and Jack Leach as England secured their first ever Test whitewash in Sri Lanka. While his selection in unhelpful conditions for the first Test of the West Indies series in 2019 did him and England no favours, when England needed to leave out a spinner during the 2019 World Cup to accommodate all four of their first-choice fast bowlers, Rashid was in and his firm friend and mentor Moeen Ali was out.
It is impossible to imagine any other England team in living memory leaving out a reliable off-spinner who can score hundreds for an attacking leg-spinner who’s batting is useful but not game-changing - and, what is more, whose shoulder required constant pain-killing injections and limited his ability to deploy his chief weapon, a near-unreadable googly. That is how deep Morgan’s faith in Rashid runs, and how heavily rewarded that faith has been. The only environment in which Rashid has ever been truly valued and recognised for the world-class performer he is is the one in which he’s flourished most - funny that.
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While a detente with Yorkshire meant that Rashid was once more signed up to feature for them in this season’s County Championship, the delayed effect of all that strain on his shoulder made his contractual eligibility moot. Some are so determined to paint Rashid as the villain that even his injury prompted criticism. One wonders if even someone as patient as Rashid finally thinks he’s had enough of all this.
The latest summit will begin soon. Whether Yorkshire keep hold of the greatest wrist-spinner England have ever had is up for debate. Whether they deserve to is not — Adil Rashid deserves so, so much better.