After Yorkshire secured their 32nd Championship title (including one shared) and their first since 2001 there was an outpouring of emotions from the players, coaches and backroom staff.
George Dobell12-Sep-2014.Joe Root: ‘I was 10 when Yorkshire last won the trophy in 2001. I remember watching them lift the trophy. To be part of it myself is great’•Getty Images
Martyn Moxon (director of cricket)”How do I feel? It’s just pride, really. Pride in the players. The way we’ve played this week epitomises what the team are about. The character, the skill, the determination: all the attributes that good teams need, I think we’ve shown this week.”This is a special moment. I’ve been in the game a long time. It’s a big moment for me to be part of a championship-winning team. I’ve been close a couple of times, and I’ve been involved with others in developing teams. But to finally finish it off today is certainly the highlight of my cricketing career.”Clearly, playing for England is a fantastic feeling and achievement. But yes, I think I do put this above it. I think the background to this, the hard work that goes into it and everything that’s involved in winning a championship – for me at the moment, it feels the best thing for sure.”I don’t want us to be just one-hit wonders. I hope we have got a squad now that is something we can build on for the future. England selections might have a hand in that, but the bottom line is to try to have a squad that is capable of challenging for trophies for a period of time.”We’re proud of our development process. People working in the age-group cricket and schools cricket have to take a lot of credit, because that’s where it starts. Without that raw material, we can’t have days like today. So we spend a lot of time on that, and it’s great when it bears fruit.”There is a structure in place to try to produce cricketers to play for Yorkshire and it’s nice in this team that there’s nine lads who have come through the system.”Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper batsman)”Everyone growing up knows the history of the club. They know what the white rose means to you. You don’t get givenyour white rose, you have to earn it. To become a capped player you have to make contributions throughout every stage of learning so it means such a great deal to be given this white rose and it’s a very special moment. It’s something I will treasure for the rest of my life.”This is the competition everyone plays for. This is the one everyone wants. I’m a very proud Yorkshireman at the moment.”If this group of players stays together there’s no reason why we can’t build on this. There’s an exciting few years ahead for Yorkshire; many years hopefully. There is obviously a very strong club system within Yorkshire. The pathway schemes, the scholarship schemes, the academy system is absolutely unbelievable. You look around at the core of the team and you have Adam Lyth at 26, Alex Lees at 21, Gary Ballance is 24, Joe Root is 23, I’m 25 and Adil Rashid is 26. It’s unbelievable.”But I’m gutted for Andrew Gale not being able to be on the pitch with us at those final moments. He has been such a crucial part in what’s been a fantastic season for Yorkshire. To drop himself at the start of the season at Middlesex shows the integrity of the bloke and shows how much the county means to him. He’s a very proud man and for him not to be on the pitch with us was desperately disappointing.”Jason Gillespie (first team coach)”I’m proud as punch of the lads. As a coaching staff, we know what’s gone in to get to this point: all the hill running in early December, the early starts, the hard graft working on their specific skills. We’ve seen how hard they’ve worked, that’s why we’re so delighted.”When I got there [to the club], we’d been relegated from Division One and I had a pretty simple job spec: get back to Division One as quickly as possible. Mr Boycott made that pretty clear.”The club’s got proud traditions. We want to celebrate tradition and still set new standards. We’re striving to get that balance right. We try to get as many former players into the club as we can. If you’ve represented Yorkshire, you’re always welcome in our dressing-room, any time of the day, any time of the week. That’s important. But we’ve got to set new benchmarks ourselves.”We wanted to play positive, aggressive, entertaining cricket. We have a captain that backs his players publicly and privately and the way he interacts with his players behind closed doors is a testament to his abilities as a skipper. If in doubt, Galey will always take the positive option.”This is right up there for me. I loved my time as a player and I was fortunate to be part of a successful side and won a Sheffield Shield, which was fantastic. Now going into coaching and winning a Championship with Yorkshire where I played is very special. It’s a dream come true.”We’re in this sport because we genuinely love it. I love my job. To see these lads to do what they’re doing and celebrate the way they are, it makes me so happy. My daughter was born in Yorkshire, my son is getting the accent, so I’m stuck. We live in Leeds, we’ve bought a house, our kids are settled. This is our home.”Joe Root (batsman and stand-in captain)”I was 10 when Yorkshire last won the trophy in 2001. I remember watching them lift the trophy. To be part of it myself is great.”It is no coincidence that that has all happened under Jason Gillespie. Since he’s come in we’ve got to the T20 finals day, gone up from the second division of the Championship, come second in the Championship and now won this. Alongside Martyn Moxon he has put some great work in, made some very good signings along the way and brought through some very good players.”I didn’t expect to captain the side but unfortunately it came about in bad circumstances. It’s credit to Galey that the way he has captained the side made it very easy for me this week. He was very good in the way he didn’t try to captain from the boundary. But he’s been very good at offering advice. He is a great club captain.”It’s massive. For a big club like us not to have won anything for such a long period of time is obviously very frustrating. To be fair I think the lads deserved it they have played exceptionally well all year in all departments.”I think 10 out of the 11 guys today are Yorkshire born players. Again that is credit to our academy. Hopefully that continues, we’ve got some great young players coming into the squad. That’s something we pride ourselves on.”
