10 best players of all time from Yorkshire

The Yorkshire County Cricket Club, founded in 1863, is one of the most iconic sides in world cricket and by far the most successful side in English cricketing history, with 33 County Championship titles.

Yorkshire has provided a number of eminent cricketers to the English national side over the years who have brought glory to their sides with their world-class performances.

Playing most of their matches at the iconic Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds, the side has a long-standing rivalry with Lanchasire, but stands head and shoulders above their rivals when it comes to success on the field.

For a side with a rich and successful history at the top of the game, it is an extremely difficult proposition to select the Top 10 players from its history, but that's exactly what I have tried to do here.

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#10 Michael Vaughan

Michael Vaughan was a much better player than what the statistics suggest

Former England skipper and now famous commentator, Michael Vaughan, was an outstanding servant for Yorkshire whose numbers don't do justice to his talent and qualities, especially as a leader, on and off the field.

Vaughan will forever be remembered as the England skipper who helped the side win back the Ashes after an 18-year-gap and if not for the pressure of captaincy and recurring injury troubles, which ultimately forced him into early retirement, his batting statistics would have looked far better.

Born in the rival-Lancashire territory of Salford in Manchester, Vaughan ended up joining Yorkshire and made his first-class debut in 1993.

Known for his beautiful stroke-play, the elegant cover drive being his masterclass, Vaughan was a joy to watch when in full flow and was part of Yorkshire's Championship winning side in 2001 as well as the side that lifted the C&G Cup at Lord’s in 2002.

Vaughan played 151 first-class matches for Yorkshire, scoring 9160 runs, which included 45 100s, at an average of 36.2. He also picked up 92 wickets with the ball.

#9 Ray Illingworth

Illingworth was not the easiest person to handle but he still is Yorkshire's finest off-spinner

One of England's most successful off-spinner and Yorkshire's finest in the art, Ray Illingworth is often talked about for his grumpy style but there is more to the man who is only one of nine cricketers in the world to complete the double of 20000 runs and 2000 wickets in first-class cricket.

The now 85-year-old made his first-class debut at the age of 19 but didn't have a promising start to either his first-class or Test career but slowly grew into his role into the side as a spinner and a more than useful batsman.

Illingworth got his first taste at captaincy only at the age of 37 after he had left Yorkshire for Leicestershire and England captaincy followed soon after.

His no-nonsense style of captaincy and cricket administration after his retirement from the game meant that he often found himself embroiled in controversies but that should not take anything away from his achievements on the field as a player.

#8 Joe Root

Joe Root has already established himself as a modern-day great

The current English Test skipper is one of the best batsmen in the world and by the time he calls time on his career, he would in all probability make an appearance higher up in the list but such is Yorkshire's rich history that he finds himself lower in the pecking order for now.

He shares a number of similarities of Michael Vaughan and it is no surprise that Root looks up at Vaughan as one of his idols.

Root rose through the youth ranks at Yorkshire making his second team debut in 2007 and signed a three-year contract with the county two years later.

Root made his national team debut in 2012 and hasn't looked back since, going from strength to strength for both county and England.

He scored his maiden Test century at his home ground of Headingley and quickly established as one of the premier batsmen in all formats of the game.

He was named as Alastair Cook's successor for the English Test side but unlike his idol Vaughan and many others before him, Root's batting hasn't been affected one bit by the extra burden on his shoulders.

Root has already secured his status as one of the modern greats and has still plenty of offer and it will be interesting to see how his stats stack up once he retires from the game.

#7 Hedley Verity

Verity made an everlasting impact in what was a tragically short career

Widely regarded as the greatest slow left-arm bowler to have played the game, Hedley Verity's career and life was cut short tragically by the Second World War, but he left a mark in cricket like very few other did before or since his time.

Having started out as a medium pace bowler, Verity extracted bounce from the surface to trouble the batsmen and holds the unique distinction of claiming ten wickets in an innings twice - the second one against Nottinghamshire, conceding just 10 runs.

Coming into the side as a successor to the legendary Wilfred Rhodes, Verity carved out a name for himself and was instrumental in leading Yorkshire to six Championship titles during his seven years at the club.

He took over 1500 wickets at an astonishing average of just above 13 but his career was cut short in 1939 as the Second World War broke out. He died as a POW in 1943.

#6 Wilfred Rhodes

Rhodes was a brilliant all-rounder for Yorkshire and England

Wilfred Rhodes made his first-class debut for Yorkshire in 1898 and established himself as one of the most respected figures in the history of cricket by the end of his long and glittering career.

At 52 years and 165 days, Rhodes holds the record for being the oldest player to have appeared in a Test match. He also holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket (1,110 matches) and for the most wickets taken (4,204).

Having started out primarily as a bowler, Rhodes made a successful transformation as a batsman and served England and Yorkshire as a true all-rounder for a number of years.

Batting became Rhodes' primary mainstay towards the end of his career, especially as an opener, but with a career that spanned more than three decades, Rhodes had amassed numbers with both bat and ball that very few could even dream of.

Eminent cricket writer Sir Neville Cardus aptly described Wilfred Rhodes as "Yorkshire Cricket personified," his having been a loyal servant of the side.

#5 Geoff Boycott

Geoffrey Boycottt

No one exemplifies Yorkshire better than former English skipper Geoff Boycott, who lit up the commentary box with his words of wisdom and humour with that typical Yorkshire accent.

Boycott is one of England's most decorated players and often outspoken cricketers and had his occasional run-ins with teammates even during his playing career.

Despite the not-so-jovial relationship with his peers, Boycott was single-minded in his obsession to score runs and was a batting mainstay at top of the order for both Yorkshire and England.

He stands eighth in the list of highest run-scorers in first-class cricket while he is fifth in terms of most first-class hundreds. His finest knock for Yorkshire was the uncharacteristically attacking knock of 146 in the Gillette Cup final at Lord’s against Surrey in 1965 that led his side to victory.

Boycott is the current president of Yorkshire and his voice remains an everpresent on the field despite his long-standing battle with throat cancer.

#4 George Hirst

Lord Hawke described George Hirst as the greatest county cricketer of all time

Widely regarded as Yorkshire's greatest all-rounder, Hirst formed a lethal partnership with Wilfred Rhodes as the greatest all-rounder pairing for Yorkshire and England and while his Test numbers are not much to boast about, his record at the domestic level sure is.

He is only one of the three cricketers, along with Rhodes and WG Grace to complete the 30,000 run-2,500 wickets double in first-class cricket.

Hirst's most memorable outings for Yorkshire came in 1901 when Yorkshire scored 104 and still managed to win by an innings and 33 runs against Essex thanks to Hirst’s figures of 7 for 12 and 5 for 17 and in 1906 against Somerset in Bath when scored 111 and 117* while taking 6 for 70 and 5 for 45.

Often touted as "the pioneer of swerve" for his ability to swing the ball like none before him, Lord Hawke, the father of Yorkshire cricket described him as the "greatest county cricketer of all time."

#3 Herbert Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe has the fourth highest Test batting average in history

One of Yorkshire's and England's greatest ever batsmen, Herbert Sutcliffe had to wait till the age of 24 to make his first-class debut because of the onset of the First World War, but he made up for lost time with his impeccable scoring that saw him amass more than 38000 first-class runs.

Initially playing in the middle order, Sutcliffe made a successful transformation as an opener forming formidable opening pairs with Jack Hobbs for England and at the county level with Percy Holmes and later, Sir Len Hutton.

His Test average of 60.73 is the fourth highest in history and the best by an Englishman and it spoke highly of his determination and concentration that saw him outshine his teammates on even the most difficult of pitches.

In fact, Sutcliffe made his name as a "bad wicket batsman" and was a batsman ahead of his time as he liked to score freely.

#2 Sir Len Hutton

Len Hutton holds the record for the highest individual Test score by an Englishman

Regarded by some as the finest English batsman of the 20th century, Sir Len Hutton played over two decades for Yorkshire and his knock of 364 against Australia in 1938, is still the highest individual score by an England cricketer in Test history.

Hutton scored a duck on debut but it proved to be one of the very few occasions he failed to make an impact with the bat for either club or country as he stood head and shoulders above his compatriots.

Known for his concentration and the guarded manner in which he used to protect his wicket, Hutton defied a serious injury sustained during the Second World War to continue his run-scoring feats with the bat.

By the time he retired in 1956, he had scored more than 40000 runs in first-class cricket with 129 hundreds and was soon knighted for his achievements in the game.

#1 Fred Trueman

Trueman was a genuine fast bowler who employed his out-swingers and bouncers to good effect

Simply put, Fred Trueman was England's greatest ever fast bowler and the first in the history of the game to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets.

He bowled with genuine pace and formed a lethal new-ball partnership with Brian Statham for England for a number of years.

However, his constant run-ins with the England administrators meant that he found himself out of the side at times which explains why he played only 67 Tests during a 13-year period.

Trueman was a colourful character on the field and someone who pioneered the image of a destructive fast bowler as we normally see nowadays.

Known for his love for bouncers, Trueman was intimidating, to say the least, but also knew how to use his outswingers to good effect.

He took more than 100 wickets in a first-class season 12 times for Yorkshire during his career and finished off with more than 1700 wickets to his name.