Dawson makes Yorkshire better by degrees

In the outfield

Yorkshire might have the finest cricketing academy known to man – at least until Rodney Marsh gets here – but what they distinctly lack are university graduates. Richard Dawson, their off-spinner (which is another commodity they do not have much of) has now been awarded a degree by Exeter University.

This makes him the first graduate to play for Yorkshire in more than 20 years. The last was Stephen Coverdale, now the chief executive of Northamptonshire, who played a handful of matches for the county after winning a Blue and a degree at Cambridge.

Yorkshire has never been a natural home for those who have been to university. True, they had Lord Hawke and Sir Stanley Jackson (both Cambridge) in the early part of the last century, but their characteristic hard-nosed professionalism has been much too deeply entrenched to have anything more than a fleeting association with college fancy-dans. The last regular who had a degree was probably Richard Hutton, who went to Cambridge and also won five England caps.

Dawson's presence in Yorkshire's first XI at last brings the team into line with the other 17 counties, who can all boast a graduate or two. In future, there may be many more. It is, after all, what the six University Centres of Excellence were designed for.

The selectors of the best team of graduates from the counties at present are confronted with an age-old problem. Few bowlers have got degrees. (The best England bowler to have gone to university may have been Frank Tyson.) Indeed, Dawson is in immediately.

The 2001 County Graduates' Team is: M A Atherton (capt), S P James, R R Montgomerie, J P Crawley, E T Smith, W S Kendall, R J Turner, R S C Martin-Jenkins, P S Jones, A M Smith, R K J Dawson.

The selectors decided to ignore the claims of the Durham University graduate and England captain Nasser Hussain, because while he might have been good enough to get in, the worry was that he would break a finger.

On second thoughts...

Talking of teams, it is said that Australia could field an entirely different XI and still beat England.

Four years ago, when the Australians were last here, the Diary, as Outfield then was, managed to compile such an XI. The challenge was met this time as well. The qualification was simply that team members must be Australians over in this country at present who are not part of the touring squad.

Not all of them are having whizz-bang seasons, but the strong could easily cover for the weak. The reserve team is listed in batting order. Greg Blewett, who has made four Test hundreds already and has an average of 50.38 with Nottingham-shire this season, will open with Michael Hussey, the Western Australian who is the country's leading runscorer with 1,310 at 72.77 and is pressing for a place in the real team.

Next will come Jamie Cox, Somerset's Tasmanian, who has made only 681 runs at 48 but would have been an automatic choice for years in England's team. The bristling middle-order will consist of Stuart Law, who made a half-century in his only Test, was dropped and is carrying Essex this summer with an average of 70.92, and Darren Lehmann, the explosive Yorkshire batsman from South Australia, who has well over 1,000 runs at an average well above 80.

Andrew Symonds, who has signed for Kent and has vast knowledge of English pitches, and Ian Harvey, Gloucestershire's Victorian all-rounder who does only a bit of this and a bit of that but has the best slower ball around, will come next.

Mark Atkinson, the Tasmanian wicketkeeper-batsman with nearly 100 first-class matches behind him, was the leading scorer in the Scottish Premier League last summer and can be reached, should Adam Gilchrist and Wade Seccombe fall out of favour, with a quick call to the West of Scotland club.

The bowlers are Andy Bichel, ace seamer in English conditions, who is plying his trade with Worcestershire; Matt Nicholson, a one-cap wonder from Perth who is taking wickets for Todmorden in Lancashire; and Joe Dawes of Queensland, who is a professional with Bromley in Kent and showed these Aussies what he is made of by knocking over their top order in their match against the MCC at Arundel.

A world of difference

In taking his tally of Test wickets to 343, the great Glenn McGrath moved ever closer to the great Dennis Lillee's record for an Australian fast bowler of 355. It will obviously please him greatly, but in discussing the subject McGrath made an extremely pertinent point.

"Dennis was a hero of mine and I don't really think I'll have overtaken him if I manage to get to 356," McGrath said. "There were the wickets he took in the two seasons of World Series Cricket."

Ah, World Series Cricket, the rebel series sponsored by Kerry Packer in the late Seventies and conveniently forgotten now. The matches were recorded in Wisden but have not been granted first-class status, let alone Test status.

But Australia's matches against West Indies and the Rest of the World were hard-fought, spectacular affairs, and no run and no wicket was easily earnt. They were first-class all right.

Lillee, Wisden will presumably never record, bowled 573 overs and took 67 wickets at 26.87. In McGrath's book, therefore, he will not have overtaken his hero until he has 423 Test wickets.