Two more years for Yorkshire captain

NEW Yorkshire captain Gary Ballance will wear the White Rose until at least the end of the 2019 season having signed a new contract at Headingley.

Ballance, 27, has played 21 Test matches for England, the last of them coming against Bangladesh in October but he was named new Yorkshire skipper in December.

He has made four Test centuries for England and will captain his county in all formats this summer having replaced Andrew Gale, who retired to become Yorkshire head coach in November.

Ballance said: “I’ve been at Yorkshire for such a long time now and it’s the only place I want to be. So it’s great to get an extension signed before the season starts and now I can just focus on playing cricket.

“The new deal has come at the perfect time for me. I can now purely focus on the captaincy, batting and scoring runs. There are no outside worries. For me it’s all about focusing on the main task; scoring runs and winning matches for Yorkshire.

“I’m really appreciative of Yorkshire for giving me an opportunity earlier in my career, the opportunity to move up to Leeds and play there. I’ve loved every minute of it, have worked with some great coaches, very talented players and I’d love to stay here for the rest of my career.

“Now as captain I want to help build on the success the club have enjoyed.”

Following a recall to the England Test team for last summer’s home series against Pakistan, Ballance made just 24 runs in four innings during England's drawn series in Bangladesh and did not feature in the 4-0 defeat in India at the end of last year.

Coach Gale added: “Gary’s one of the best batsmen in the country and his record backs that up. He’s done it at international level too for England so we want to keep him at the club as long as we can. I believe he’s got all the qualities to be a success for Yorkshire.”