Anthony McGrath column

This season has been the most frustrating of my career so far.

It started with training all the way through the winter up until February and then getting injured just as we were about to start getting into cricket skills again.

Then, following the operation on my knee to repair the cartilage, I went to the West Indies for the pre-season tour to recuperate and get some batting practice in but picked up the sciatica problem.

I then tried to play early season when I was in a lot of pain, which I shouldn’t have done.

I’ve played with broken ribs and busted fingers before but that was by far the worst thing I’ve ever had to deal with.

I found a little bit of touch down at Hove in the second innings of our Championship match against Sussex but that was stopped by the start of Twenty20.

The idea behind me sitting out the recent Twenty20s was to get some batting practice with the seconds and in the league over the weekend for the Academy against Castleford.

I want to play in every first-team game available and I’m as determined as ever. I don’t think I’ve got anything to prove but I certainly think I’ve got plenty of years left in me yet in terms of playing.

I’m very keen to get back in and return to how I was playing last season.

This next couple of weeks will see the end of the Twenty20 group stages and it has been a funny competition for us.

The first couple of games we didn’t play very well. It showed that we hadn’t had too much preparation, having come off back-to-back Championship games.

Then, with the double over Lancashire, it looked like we were getting good momentum with some good plans. But for one reason or another, we’ve just lacked consistency. That has been the story of Twenty20 ever since it began all those years ago.

It is very difficult to compete in that format without an overseas player. Not only do some counties have them but they have Kolpaks as well. That can make it even harder to compete.

You only had to look at the game on TV the other night between Hampshire and Kent. Hampshire had Afridi and Tahir as their overseas players and then McKenzie as a Kolpak. Kent also had Azhar Mahmood as a Kolpak. It was star-studded.

It really is a stark difference to a team without an overseas player.

Finances come into it and our club obviously decided not to go with the overseas and give the young lads a go, which might be of benefit in the future.

But people will say ‘we’re not surprised they’ve struggled a bit because Yorkshire didn’t have an overseas’.

Tim Bresnan is another player who’s endured a frustrating summer because of injury but it was great to see him get picked for the one-day team again. Hopefully he can stay injury free and build on the form he showed at the Ashes.