The Twelfth Man 2020

TALKS WITH OLD YORKSHIRE PLAYERS… CRAIG WHITE NormanHazell continues his series of conversationswith former Yorkshire players…. Archive W hen I took over the wonderful job of editing The Twelfth Man I included an article about Old County men and this was well received by members around the world. During the past decade, joined by Brian Sanderson and the late Brian Workman, I have travelled all over the coun- ty, spending many happy hours with fine men, like Don Wilson, Bob Appleyard, Bryan Stott, Brian Close, Michael Cowan, John Hampshire and retrospectively, Wilfred Rhodes. The latest addition to this select company involved me simply walking across the road, where Brian and I were made most welcome by a real all-rounder: Craig White - not an Aussie, he assured me, although he has caps for Australia at U18 and U19 level. Born at Morley near Leeds, at the age of seven his par- ents emigrated to Australia where they happily settled and Craig soon showed his exceptional sporting skill - not just cricket - in a country where a great climate and open air encourages young boys and girls to get involved in all sports. When I referred to Craig as an all-rounder, I was being com- pletely accurate. He started life playing Australian Rules football at Hawthorn Club in Melbourne. League cricket saw him as a proficient wicketkeeper but after bowling off-breaks in the nets, his coach suggested he might concentrate on that and indeed, on a tour to West Indies he took more wickets than any other bowler. It was this great ability that saw Craig selected for two age-group Australian teams. His parents settled in Bendigo, a former gold-mining town, not far from Melbourne and, as Kath- leen and I discovered on one of our many visits, a fine home for one of my nephews (another lives nearby in Ballarat). Naturally his cricket saw him move to the city where he found himself in the same team as Shane Warne from St Kilda, just a few miles from the ‘G’ as Australians call their fine Melbourne Cricket Ground. Craig and Shane were team-mates and perhaps that helped Craig become the fine fast bowler who signed to come over to Headingley as a genuine all-rounder. As Brian and I sat in the lounge of Craig’s home in Sandal time just flew by. Brian has an impressive knowledge of the history of our game and Craig talked about everything without reservation, with me being content to just occasionally ‘chip in’ from time-to-time, unable to resist dropping in memories of meetings in the past. For example, on my first visit to see daughter Sarah, I found myself treated as an honoured guest due to an introduction from our good friend Sir Lawrence Byford. MCC ‘A’ team were playing Victoria, as I was reminded by Craig, at the Optus Oval, just a 30,000 seat local ground. Joining the teams for lunch, I innocently asked my neighbour “who do you play for?” to which he simply told me he was a runner. That amused Craig, who told me the autograph on my menu was Steve Moneghetti, world-famous marathon runner and Olympian. Craig’s wonderful record in first-class and Test Cricket is very well known: 30 Test matches with a top score of 121 and 59 wickets, while in first-class cricket 11,090 runs for Yorkshire and 391 wickets, bowling fast. He captained Yorkshire for three seasons (2004-06) and proved to be most successful. Norman Hazell (l) with Craig White at home in Sandal, Wakefield