JACK Brooks is preparing to get stuck into the first Roses battle of 2016, which will take place 9,000 miles away in Australia with his new housemate.

The Yorkshire seamer has flown out to Perth for three months of grade cricket in readiness for the new county season in April.

He is one of a host of English professionals playing club cricket Down Under this winter, with another being young Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone.

Livingstone is plying his trade in Willetton Dragons' first-grade team – the club Brooks has played regularly for during the last 11 years and will do again until early March.

"I think I will be living with him, so it will be interesting getting a 'Lanky' and a 'Yorky' together," said 31-year-old Brooks.

"I've played against him, but I don't really know him.

"He's been playing first grade, but you can't have two English guys in the same team, so I'm not sure what they're going to do.

"They have said that I will play in the first grade.

"I'd understand it if I played a second grade game to begin with, but I organised it before his name cropped up and I'm the senior pro. I think he would understand!

"I'm going away because I know what I'm going to get. Practice-wise, I'd be bowling back at Headingley anyway, so I'd much rather be on grass for a couple of months.

"Grade cricket is pretty tough. First grade is not as high as county or second XI in England, but it's played with a professional attitude."

There was a brief time back in August when some Yorkshire fans feared Brooks might be in the same county dressing room as Livingstone next season, never mind the same house.

During Festival week at Scarborough, there was a rumour started that Brooks might be leaving Yorkshire to join Lancashire.

It was dismissed by Jason Gillespie and the man himself at the time, and he has reflected: "It was a very weird rumour to hear.

"Ever since I joined Yorkshire, I haven't even spoken to another team or thought about leaving.

"It started at Scarborough in the game that I didn't play against Durham. A few supporters came up to me and asked if I was going to Lancs. I said 'What? Where's that come from?'

"I did some commentary for Sky at Lancs v Notts in the T20. Whether some people saw me there and got the wrong end of the stick, I don't know.

"I had to put a few supporters in their place and say 'go and tell your mates I'm staying here'."

Thankfully for Yorkshire, their spearhead bowler is looking forward to resuming the Roses battles in the Championship next year now that Lancashire have returned to Division One.

"They are always decent games," added Brooks. "It was nice two years ago when we beat them at their place.

"The game at Headingley was rained off when evenly poised. For a team that went down, they gave us a really tough game at home.

"I always get on well with quite a lot of their lads, and I'm sure there will be some friendly banter between myself and Liam in Perth."

Meanwhile, no Yorkshire players were picked in the draft for February's Pakistan Super League T20 competition.

Young seam bowler Jared Warner has, however, been selected by England for next month's Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.