JACK Shutt is hoping Yorkshire CCC can emulate his hometown football club Barnsley FC in recovering well from a relegation, while aiming to play more regularly this season.
The 25-year-old spinner from Elsecar is about to start his fifth campaign with the first team squad.
Shutt is a Barnsley FC fan and his father Steve Shutt played briefly for the Reds in the 1980s.
The Oakwell club are currently competing for promotion from League One.
Jack said: “An ideal outcome would be Barnsley getting promoted to the Championship and Yorkshire getting promoted to Division One.
“I always check Barnsley’s results and they seem to have won most of the time this season.”
Yorkshire were relegated from County Championship Division One last season and are hoping to bounce straight back, starting at home to Leicestershire from Thursday.
Shutt said: “Everyone is of the same mind which is that we need to get straight back out of Division Two.
“Winning the division is a big priority.
“Then we have the Twenty20 Blast which we’ve never won before. Everybody is desperate for the first title in that competition.
“We’re looking to do well in all three.
“But the first priority is promotion.
“We have good morale, training looks really good and we’re very hopeful that we have the ability to have a really good season.
“It’s been very good in pre-season.
“We started back in November and we’ve done a hell of a lot of gym and running as well as loads of bowling and batting indoors.
“We went away as a squad to South Africa which was a really good trip.
“It’s been good preparation.”
Shutt, who made his first team debut in 2019, has played five County Championship games, 11 in the 50-over Cup and 13 in the Blast – taking 31 wickets in total from 29 matches.
“I’ve been in the squad a few years now and I am still at the club which is a real positive.
“I want to play more cricket and I will be working hard to do that this year.
“I am massively proud to represent Yorkshire having supported them since I was a young kid.
“I am getting to the stage where I want to make that breakthrough and be a regular. I don’t want to always be a fringe player coming in and out.
“We have a lot of competition for places because it’s a very big club.
“We have Dom Bess who is an international off-spinner. It’s a given that he is the number one spinner at the club.
“I just want to play as much first team cricket as possible. I have worked hard on my game and I’m improving all the time. I just want to take whatever opportunities come for me.
“I want to bowl a lot of overs and get my rhythm in First Class cricket because I haven’t played too much in the first team Championship squad.
“I have done well in the second team Championship so I am confident in red ball cricket. I have been in and out of the white ball team but done pretty well when I have had a chance.”
