Sharp: Sayers has all-round potential (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Sharp: Sayers has all-round potential

3:24pm Monday 30th March 2009 in Sport By Graham Hardcastle

Joe Sayers has the ability to be a star performer in all forms of the game, including Twenty20 cricket, according to Yorkshire’s batting coach Kevin Sharp.

The 25-year-old left-hander threw his hat firmly into the ring to take one of the opening places in the County Championship line-up with two impressive performances on the club’s recent pre-season tour to the UAE.

He hit 55 against Surrey and 132 against Lancashire to help the White Rose county finish third in the Pro ARCH Trophy.

Director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon will be currently sifting through all the candidates for the opening partnership, an area which Sharp says has been of “most concern” in recent seasons.

Andrew Gale, the most successful in that berth in 2008, will be the leading contender, while it seems that Adam Lyth and Sayers will fight it out to face the new ball with him. Michael Vaughan, Anthony McGrath and Jacques Rudolph will almost certainly make up the middle order.

Sayers has been working with Sharp this winter on technical changes to his grip, enabling him to be more prolific through the off-side by playing with a straighter bat.

“What is happening now is that he is not only able to play the big shots, but he is also able to rotate the strike by taking singles into gaps between the fielders on the off-side,” explained Sharp.

“Joe has been in Yorkshire cricket for a good few years now but over the last year or two he has lost some form and found himself out of the side.

“He hasn’t yet forced his way into the one-day side. Apart from the odd game or two, Championship cricket is what he has played. But there is no reason why he can’t force his way into the one-day side, and the Twenty20 too.

“You can see from some of the shots he has played on tour that he is more than capable of doing that.”

Sayers’ search for the kind of form which saw him score three Championship hundreds in six weeks in 2007 took him to a week-long batting clinic in the Indian city of Bangalore in February.

“Joe’s work ethic is extremely high,” added Sharp. “Once he sees the merit in working on something, he will put his heart and soul into it.”