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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er, who played for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and latterly

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

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

, having attended school at

Scarborough College Scarborough College is a private coeducational day and boarding school aged 3–18 years in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1898 and opened in 1901. The school has been an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School ...

. He was a left-handed batsman who scored a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

, on the day his son was born, and very occasionally bowled right-arm medium pace. He was appointed Yorkshire's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

at the start of the 1996 season, following the resignation of Martyn Moxon. In 2001, he led the county to their first

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

title win for 33 years, sealing the championship with a catch taken at North Marine Road. The following season he signed for Lancashire CCC, becoming one of the few players to play for both counties. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Byas was on the verge of an

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

call-up, having been the first player to reach 1,000 runs in that season, only the return to fitness of Michael Atherton 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 North Marine Road, 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, sub ...

. 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 Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. 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 Pocklington School is a private day and boarding school in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1514 by John Dolman. The school is situated in of land, on the outskirts of the small market town, from York and f ...

, 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 for an employment tribunal regarding racism Rafiq had faced at

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

. 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 Cricketers from the East Riding of Yorkshire Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People educated at Scarborough College 20th-century English sportsmen