Greatest Living Yorkshiremen – 1. Michael Vaughan

A momentous day today in English cricket. Michael Vaughan scored his first century for Yorkshire in over five years. Okay, it was just a hit and giggle match against Surrey in Abu Dhabi, but the fact is that one of our greatest sons is back in the saddle and scoring runs.

The England selectors have never closed the door to a return to the fold. All they have stipulated is that he needs to be scoring runs, and now he is. Although there is a part of me that would like to see him bat all season for Yorkshire, I know he deserves to be back in the England team.

When it comes to a comprehensive list of Greatest Living Yorkshiremen, you simply have to have a cricketer in there. There are those who quote Boycott as the quintessential Yorkshireman, but, although I have a grudging respect for him, he is held in scant affection by anyone inside or outside the county. Spending twenty years in a slow, remorseless pursuit of runs, followed by thirty years of telling everyone why they are not as good as you at doing it, does not a hero make.

For about fifteen years, Darren Gough held sway in my affections as favourite cricketer and a true great man of Yorkshire. His casual indifference to authority or reputation, and his pinpoint Yorkers made him a legend. But a series of events started to tarnish my affection for him. First he moved to Essex, recklessly abandoning the county of his birth simply for the convenience of being close to his two sons. Next, he decided not to tour Pakistan with the England side, preferring instead to remain in Britain and go on that dreadful dancing programme.

This had the effect of introducing him to a wider audience, broadening his appeal and moving him onto a career path that would culminate in a spandex body-suit, pushing Vanessa Feltz through a hole in a polystyrene wall whilst Dale Winton shrieked from the sidelines. It is fair to say that, by the time of this humiliation, my affections had moved on.

So Vaughan it is who fills the cricketing berth in my pantheon of greats. Captain of county and country, dignified and majestic, if a little over-fond of the odd bit of management-speak bullshit. What a guy.