Yorkshire's director of

cricket David Byas has a job on his hands to restore the club to what they consider their rightful place.

Last summer started well but performances soon dipped; injuries took their toll, and the club ended up third-from-bottom in Division Two.

It is a situation Byas intends to put right this season.

And despite the club's

continuing reliance on a handful of senior players - he insists there is not much wrong.

"Last season was an eye-opener - that's one way of putting it," said Byas.

"I think many people expected, myself included, we would have got promotion.

"But we lost four senior

players to injury and two senior players to England at the same time.

"I'm not looking for excuses but if you take six players out for one spell in the second half of the season it's going to be difficult for any team."

That mitigation allows Byas to retain hope of much better this time round.

"It wasn't a complete disaster when you look at it

realistically," he contends.

"Weather also played a huge part, so I think we've got things to look forward to this season.

"It's another year. The players had that appetite last year, and I'm sure they'll come back stronger this year. All the lads are in good spirits.

"There are not radical changes to be made. We need our strong players to stay fit, decent weather and the rub of the green."

Chief among Yorkshire's problems last season was the loss of captain Craig White to injury.

His absence, along with that of pace spearhead Chris Silverwood and internationally-summoned pair Anthony McGrath and Ian Harvey, left Yorkshire light on experience.

With Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard also rarely available because of England commitments, stand-in

captain Matthew Wood was left with few older heads to turn to.