On this day: Yorkshire sign their first overseas cricketer

A famous cricket trivia question goes, “Who was the first overseas cricketer to represent Yorkshire?”. The answer to this question is the name that holds uncountables records and achievements – Sachin Tendulkar. In 1992, Yorkshire, one of the most uncompromising of the English county teams, found their first overseas signing in a 19-year old Indian batsman.

#OnThisDay
English county witnesses the greatness of @sachin_rt as he becomes the first overseas player for Yorkshire pic.twitter.com/JhDpLjcODI

— 100MB (@100MasterBlastr) April 30, 2020

As strange as it may sound, this was not the original plan of the county. Yorkshire had finalised a deal with Australia’s fast bowler Craig McDermott. However, McDermott suffered a groin injury and his name was ruled out. Yorkshire then scampered to find another high profile name and they soon found one in Tendulkar. In just three years after making his Test debut, the Master Blaster became the first overseas cricketer for the county.

Thus far, Tendulkar had made centuries on his Ranji Trophy debut, Irani Trophy debut and Duleep Trophy debut. He nearly achieved the feat on his county debut as well but fell short by 14 runs as he was LBW to Jon Ayling. In his county stint, Tendulkar played 16 first-class matches scoring 1070 runs at an average of 46.52. He also featured in a few one-day games where he struck a century against Lancashire. However, this proved to be his only county cricket season.