David Byas (born 26 August 1963)) is an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er, who played for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

and latterly

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, in a 17-year first-class career. Byas grew up on a farm in

, having attended school at Scarborough College. He was a left-handed batsman who scored a century, on the day his son was born, and very occasionally bowled right-arm medium pace. He was appointed Yorkshire's captain at the start of the 1996 season, following the resignation of

Martyn Moxon Martyn Douglas Moxon (born 4 May 1960) is a former English cricketer, who played in ten Test matches and eight One Day Internationals for England and for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1980 and 1997. In May 2007, Moxon was confirmed as ...

. In 2001, he led the county to their first

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

title win for 33 years, sealing the championship with a catch taken at

North Marine Road North Marine Road Ground, formerly known as Queen's, is a cricket ground in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Scarborough Cricket Club which hosts the Scarborough Festival and the Yorkshire County Cricket Club plays a s ...

. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, Byas was on the verge of an

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

call-up, having been the first player to reach 1,000 runs in that season, only the return to fitness of

Michael Atherton Michael Andrew Atherton (born 23 March 1968) is a broadcaster, journalist and a former England international first-class cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman for Lancashire and England, and occasional leg-break bowler, he achieved the ca ...

and

Graeme Hick Graeme Ashley Hick (born 23 May 1966) is a Zimbabwean-born former England cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He was born in Rhodesia, and as a young man played international cricket for Zimbabwe. H ...

, prevented him from doing so. In total he scored 1,913 runs in the whole campaign. His highest score of 213, was made at his home ground of

, being one of only five players to achieve a double-hundred in the first-class game, at this stadium. Byas started his career in 1978, as a second-team player at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

. However, he ultimately helped the club to the latter two of their five ECB National Club Cricket Championship titles (1981 and 1982) at Lord's. In 1984, he set a record in the now former Yorkshire League, by scoring 1,349 runs for the season, a record which stood for 19 years. Since retiring, Byas has been a manager and coach at

, in charge of cricket development at Pocklington School, a senior cricket advisor at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and runs his own cricket school, the 'Byas Academy'. In November 2021, it came to light that Byas had been named in the witness statement of

Azeem Rafiq Azeem Rafiq ( ur, عظیم رفیق; born 27 February 1991) is a British Asian cricketer who played professionally in England for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. A right arm off-spin bowler, Rafiq played for the county between 2008 and 2014 and 20 ...

for an employment tribunal regarding racism Rafiq had faced at

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

. It was alleged that Byas regularly used racist language and nicknames. Byas has denied these allegations.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Byas, David 1963 births Living people English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Yorkshire cricket captains Lancashire cricketers People from the East Riding of Yorkshire Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Sportspeople from Yorkshire People educated at Scarborough College