White Rose chief backs Will to shine

MARTYN Moxon says Will Fraine is one for the future at Yorkshire – but believes the former Honley batsman can become an ‘outstanding’ cricketer.

The 22-year-old completed what he described as a dream move to his home county last month having only signed a deal with Nottinghamshire at the start of the summer.

The lure of the White Rose was too much for Huddersfield-born Fraine to turn down, having been at the club’s academy as a junior before going to Durham University.

But now he is back and part of a winter of change at Headingley, which has seen a number of senior players leave the club.

And Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, says they have signed Fraine with a nod to the future as they look to rebuild a team capable of challenging for silverware in all formats.

“He’s a talented young batsman,” said Moxon. “He’s very much someone with the future in mind and, hopefully, he’ll develop in to an outstanding cricketer for us.

“He’s Yorkshire born and bred and has been in our system as a junior, so it’s good to have him back. He’s looking forward to getting back here with us and we’re looking forward to having him back with us.

“We’re trying to build a squad for now and for the future. He’s a medium to longterm signing for us.

“He’s going to be challenging for places for us, but there are no guarantees. We see him as someone for the future and we’re building up a group of really good young batsmen that we’ll see the best of in coming years.

“We’re trying to get that balance of giving our own a chance, but at the same time winning. We’re under pressure to win at Yorkshire and under pressure to win every game.”

Fraine will link up with his new Yorkshire team-mates, who have just returned from Abu Dhabi where they have been playing in an end-of-season T20 tournament against teams from around the world, when they begin pre-season training next month.

And Moxon revealed he is someone they have been keeping an eye on for a while now.

“We’ve known about him for a little while and this season we were interested in having a look at him, but Notts signed him for the season,” he said.

“So we weren’t able to play him in our second team this year.

“Speaking to Paul Grayson, who has had him at Durham University, he rates him very highly and obviously he’s played second XI cricket for Notts.

“We see him very much as someone who is another very exciting prospect for the future.”