RICH PYRAH has admitted his pride at what he achieved as a player at Yorkshire, but says it may never have happened had he not been encouraged to go and knock on his headmaster’s door by his father.

The all-rounder, 32, has called time on an 11 year professional career to take up a job on the Headingley coaching staff.

One of Yorkshire’s most reliable performers in limited overs cricket in recent years, Pyrah finished by playing a sporadic part in back-to-back LV= County Championship titles.

But, having been educated at a non-cricket playing high school in his home town of Ossett, catching the eye of the White Rose county was never going to be easy.

“I was playing under-13s cricket at Ossett at eight or nine years-old, but when I went to secondary school, they didn’t play any cricket,” he explained.

“I obviously wanted to get into the Yorkshire system, but to do that in those days you had to go through district trials, and mine were at Wakefield.

“You could only do that by people putting you forward at school. But having no cricket at school, how on earth was I going to get in?

“So my dad (Mick) made me go and knock on the headmaster’s door and ask if he would put me forward for Wakefield district trials. He said ‘we’ve never done it before, but yes, of course’.

“If my dad hadn’t pushed me, I don’t think I’d have got into the system. I was playing for Yorkshire U12s, and things progressed from there.

“I was also opening the batting with my dad at 12 in senior cricket for Ossett. He was captain. It was a nightmare because he kept telling me off at the other end!”

Pyrah, currently studying for the ECB Level Four coaching badge and finishing off his Benefit Year with the county, took the catch that confirmed the first of Yorkshire’s two successive Championship titles last year - during a win against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge whilst he was a substitute fielder.

In all, he took 55 wickets and scored 1,621 runs in 51 first-class matches, a tally which would have been more had he taken up a number of opportunities to move counties.

“I’d been through my career and not won anything, so to finish with back-to-back titles is very pleasing and makes me proud,” he added.

“I look back and think that I could have gone and played a lot more first-class cricket if I was elsewhere, but I’m a Yorkshireman through and through.

“So to stay with the club and play when I can, to fight for my place, that means more to me than going somewhere else and playing another 50 first-class games.

“At one stage, I did consider leaving. I was doing well and knew that if I left I’d have probably been one of the first names on the team sheet in four-day cricket as well.

“But I’ve always known which path I wanted my career to take, and that was coaching. Staying at Yorkshire has helped that, and I’m hopefully ahead of most people at my age in terms of coaching because I’ve been at Yorkshire.

“In the bigger picture, it was the right decision.”