BRESNAN BETTING ON RED
Yorkshire all-rounder says IPL’s white-ball poaching will NOT weaken county championship
TIM BRESNAN has rubbished claims the County Championship is being devalued by the IPL as he targets more silverware for his beloved Yorkshire.
The former England all-rounder is convinced the quality on show will be just as high as ever with the IPL mainly taking the best white-ball players and leaving the cream of the red-ball game in England.
Yorkshire team-mates David Willey and Liam Plunkett are the latest players to pick up T20 deals as injury replacements in India, which has prompted questions about the cannibalisation of the domestic competition.
But Bresnan points to the fact that Joe Root (inset), Cheteshwar Pujara, and Jonny Bairstow will all be turning out for the White Rose county in the first few Championship matches before Kane Williamson heads back over for the second half of the season.
“There is talk about T20 and the IPL devaluing the County Championship, but is it?” questioned Bresnan.
“They say all the good players are going, but it is all the white-ball players who are going, not the red-ball.
“Most of the Test players are going to be playing three or more of the first five rounds ahead of the Test series with Pakistan. And it can’t be devaluing the Championship that much if at different times at Yorkshire we’re going to have batsmen ranked three, four, seven and 13 in the world playing for us.
“Then there are guys like Jimmy Anderson, Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad – all unbelievable Test players, playing in our competition.
“You might not have Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who will both be missed, but I don’t think the competition is suffering too badly and I don’t agree with those who say it is weakened.”
Yorkshire get cracking today at Headingley against defending champions Essex – and Bresnan is eager to see the title return north after a disaapointing 2017.
No Yorkshire batsman scored 1,000 runs last summer, and if it wasn’t for Ben Coad’s 50 wickets their bowling would have sunk without a trace too. Bresnan accepts both he and his teammates dropped off from their usual standards last year, but with a point to prove they are keen to start with a bang. “When people used to come up against us when we were champions, they would lift their game and I don’t see that being any different for us now against Essex,” he added.
“We’ve got a lot to prove because we didn’t meet anywhere near our expectations last year and want to put that right.
“There are players in our dressing room who’ve got a few doubters to silence, including myself. Now is the time to do it.”