FORMER England player and esteemed cricket journalist Derek Pringle feels Adil Rashid made a rash decision in telling Yorkshire that he would not play red-ball cricket for them in 2018.

Pringle, who was speaking to the Telegraph & Argus at the Lord's Taverners Christmas Lunch earlier this week, believes the Bradford leg-spinner's dramatic decision came as a result of being overlooked for England's 2017/18 Ashes squad.

National selector Ed Smith informed Rashid that he had to make himself available across the board for his county in 2019 to be considered for England duty, and the 30-year-old duly signed a one-year all-format deal for Yorkshire in September.

Pringle believes it should never have come to that, saying: "He was left out of that England tour to Australia in favour of Mason Crane and I just think it was perhaps an ill-advised hissy fit on his part.

"He thought 'well I'm going to commit myself to white-ball cricket from now on and to do that, I'll tell Yorkshire I don't want to play red-ball cricket for them either.'

"Of course, then a new set of selectors came in for England. Ed Smith took over and decided the Test squad probably needed him so they brought him back.

"If you're going to play for England, you may as well play red-ball cricket for Yorkshire surely."

Although Rashid is now back in the Yorkshire fold, England have awarded him a central contract for both Test and One-Day matches.

The same applies for his Yorkshire team-mates Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, with the trio unlikely to feature heavily for their county side in 2019.

Pringle mused: "It's interesting because when Michael Atherton captained England, he said the best thing that ever happened to English cricket to help their chances of winning and being a successful team were central contracts.

"But unless it serves the England coaches' purpose for their players to play a bit of county cricket, they won't play any. These days the fixture list is so crowded that you just need the rest.

"If you get a moment off, you're not going to play for your county."

Surrey romped to the 2018 Specsavers County Championship title, but Pringle feels that they could be victims of their own success, leaving Yorkshire with as good a chance as anyone to claim the crown next year.

He said: "Surrey won it with such a young team that you'd think they'd be up there again. But they will probably have more England calls now, which will weaken them.

"Teams are more aggressive these days and if you win five or six games, you've got every chance of being in the top three."

Pringle has been busy this year, with his book, "Pushing the Boundaries: Cricket in the Eighties", being released last month.

He laughed: "It's my first book and I really enjoyed writing it. It's a bit self-indulgent and memoir-ish but it's had some decent reviews so far, which has surprised me slightly."