Andrew Gale: Not so sure Yorkshire would beat England!

He didn’t even pick me in it! I thought: ‘Thanks, Geoffrey and he hasn’t even put me in the side!’

But seriously, Yorkshire playing England would never happen. It would be a great game, but it’s wrong to say Yorkshire would beat England. England have some great cricketers and even though they are having a bad trot, they will come good.

In terms of the second Test, I thought England played well and only a mad couple of hours lost them it versus West Indies

That’s the way cricket goes at that level. If you lose a session or two, it will cost you the game. It was exactly what happened, although I was disappointed one or two of our lads didn’t get a go. The pitch was perfect in Barbados for Adil Rashid. I would have liked us to see him get the nod. But it wasn’t to be.

Obviously, Jonathan Trott was stepped down now and I hope Lythy [Adam Lyth] gets his chance now. The sheer weight of runs last year should give him the opportunity to play against New Zealand. I would be disappointed if someone pipped him.

But hopefully he will get a few runs for us this week and have a decent run in the side as he has done for Yorkshire.

We are back in action against Hampshire and we have four in the six back. although Gary [Ballance] and Rooty [Joe Root] are rested. But the others have strengthened our side and we can get fresh faces around the team again. I guess a few lads will be disappointed, but if you are going to play for a team like Yorkshire, you are going to get situations like that.

In terms of the returning players, I don’t want to put too much pressure on them. Some haven’t played for six weeks and it’s like starting pre-season again and they have to try and ease their way back.

I don’t want them to try too hard. I want them to ease their way back in, although they will want to prove a point when they haven’t played in the West Indies and make some contributions. But from me, there’s no pressure on them.

Jason Gillespie turned down the move to South Australia recently and we have a great relationship – one most counties would admire.

It’s been a real strength of ours. It must have been a tough decision and it’s his home state and for them to come knocking is flattering, I’m sure.

But he feels like he has got unfinished business and he does not want to win one trophy and leave and it’s fantastic he turned that job down and his heart and head is at Yorkshire.

Last week has been a bit of a mixed week if I am honest. We have planned on having four days off, which would have been nice. And then we had a couple of practice Twenty20 (T20) games at Sheffield and Marton near Middlesbrough.

But unfortunately, the weather took its toll up there and we trained at Headingley instead.

We were looking forward to both games. It is always nice to get out in the community and support both local clubs.

It’s sad. You get overwhelmed when you go to places like that and you see how passionate people are about Yorkshire cricket and you forget about all these little ‘pockets’.

Some people had put so much hard work into the grounds, but unfortunately the weather took its toll.

In the County Championship, we haven’t missed much cricket, but it seems to rain every Saturday!

I feel for the league cricketers who keep turning out, week in, week out to only play a handful of overs each week. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we will have the Indian summer that they keep promising and wickets will harden up and we will have plenty of runs and wickets.

Glenn Maxwell will have a longer run with us and unfortunately, Finchy [Aaron Finch] will be out a bit later than we anticipated with this injury.

Maxwell has a point to prove in red-ball cricket. He’s an outstanding T20 player, but he wants to get into that Australian Test side and he’s an exciting player. I am sure he will be good and put bums on seats and hopefully we can get the best out of him.