Yorkshire CCC’s Adam Lyth keen to learn from hero Darren Lehmann in The Hundred

YORKSHIRE batsman Adam Lyth has issued a come-and-get-me plea to Darren Lehmann.
AIMING HIGH: Yorkshire's Adam Lyth wants to play under club legend Darren Lehmann in The Hundred next season. Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.comAIMING HIGH: Yorkshire's Adam Lyth wants to play under club legend Darren Lehmann in The Hundred next season. Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.com
AIMING HIGH: Yorkshire's Adam Lyth wants to play under club legend Darren Lehmann in The Hundred next season. Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.com

Lyth wants to play for the 100-ball franchise at Headingley that will be coached by the club’s former overseas star.

Lehmann achieved cult status at Yorkshire during a glittering career in the Nineties and Noughties.

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And he will be picking his squad for The Hundred when the player draft takes place on October 20.

Darren Lehmann will be head coach of the Leeds-based franchise in next season's The Hundred. Picture: Jason O'Brien/PADarren Lehmann will be head coach of the Leeds-based franchise in next season's The Hundred. Picture: Jason O'Brien/PA
Darren Lehmann will be head coach of the Leeds-based franchise in next season's The Hundred. Picture: Jason O'Brien/PA

“I’d love to get picked up in the draft and to play under one of the heroes of Yorkshire cricket,” said Lyth.

“Darren Lehmann is an absolute legend of Yorkshire, so it would be unbelievable to play 
under him and to work with him,” he said.

“I guess we’ll just have to see when the draft takes place, but, fingers crossed, I’ll get picked up for the Leeds team or, if not, then for one of the other teams, but I’d love to play under Darren if possible.

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“I feel like I’ve performed really well for the last three or four seasons in T20 so, hopefully, I’ll be involved in The Hundred.”

LEGEND: Darren Lehmann celebrates a century while playing for Yorkshire. Picture: Steve Riding.LEGEND: Darren Lehmann celebrates a century while playing for Yorkshire. Picture: Steve Riding.
LEGEND: Darren Lehmann celebrates a century while playing for Yorkshire. Picture: Steve Riding.

Lyth, 31, was a youngster coming through the Headingley system when Lehmann last represented Yorkshire in 2006.

He was 12th man when Lehmann signed off with 339 against Durham at Headingley, the second-highest individual innings in Yorkshire’s history, and was still a few months short of making his first-class debut.

As a fellow left-hander with an attacking style and natural flair, Lyth looked up to a man who scored 8,871 first-class runs for Yorkshire at an average of 68.76 and who played 144 times for Australia in Tests and one-day internationals.

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He also worked with the 49-year-old at the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Australia, which has helped numerous cricketers since 2005.

“I’ve spent a little bit of time with Darren and I went to his academy in Adelaide,” said Lyth.

“He was obviously an incredible player and someone I always looked up to as a youngster.

“The lads all say that his cricket brain was outstanding, his knowledge of the game was outstanding, and obviously you don’t go and coach Australia, as he did, if you’re not a good coach.

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“It would be great to learn more from him by playing under him in The Hundred when it comes next season.”

Team names for the competition have yet to be finalised, but it is understood that the Leeds franchise will be called Northern Superchargers.

It is thought likely that Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire first team coach, will be involved in some capacity to gain experience, although none of the men’s franchises will be directly run by a young English coach.

Before then, Lyth hopes to be involved in the T10 tournament scheduled to take place in Dubai in late October/early November.

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Last year, he featured for the T10 franchise Maratha Arabians.

“I’m not quite sure as yet regarding my winter plans,” Lyth said.

“But I went to the T10 last year and, hopefully, I’ll be retained in that.

“I enjoyed the experience and it would be nice to get out there to Dubai for a few weeks and to play in that competition.

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“It’s always good to broaden your horizons and to experience different conditions and tournaments too.”

Lyth’s immediate focus, of course, is to finish the season strongly with Yorkshire.

He goes into the final two matches at home to Kent next week and away to Warwickshire the following week requiring 236 more runs to reach 1,000 in the County Championship this season.

“Hopefully, I can finish off with 1,000, which is always a nice target to get to,” he said.

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Lyth added: “I’m happy with the way things have gone overall for me this year, although I would have liked a few bigger scores to be honest.

“I’ve got seven or eight fifties but not had the hundreds that I would have wanted ideally.

“Hopefully, I can end on a high and we can finish the season with a couple of wins.”

Lyth, who hails from Whitby, achieved a notable milestone during last week’s match against Somerset in Taunton.

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He passed 10,000 first-class runs for the club, the first player to achieve that feat for Yorkshire since Anthony McGrath in 2007, a year when Craig White also accomplished the milestone.

“I’m very proud,” said Lyth.

“To get 10,000 is a big milestone and now it’s on to the next one really.

“I’m still only young, so hopefully there’s plenty more runs out there to get.

“Hopefully, I’ve got five or six seasons left in me, so I can maybe reach 15,000 if everything goes well.”

Lyth is likely to be a sought-after target in The Hundred draft.

He remains one of the most versatile batsmen in the country, a man who seems equally adept playing red-ball or white.