Gale succeeds McGrath as Yorkshire captain

The England Lions batsman, Andrew Gale, has been named as Yorkshire's captain for 2010, following Monday's resignation of Anthony McGrath, who led the county throughout the 2009 campaign but has stood down to concentrate on his batting.

Gale, 26, was unveiled at a press conference at Headingley on Tuesday, and becomes Yorkshire's sixth captain in ten years. He was their player of the year in 2009, scoring 828 runs in the County Championship, and a further total of 689 in the three limited-overs competitions.

He was also selected to play for England Lions against Australia in August, and travelled to South Africa as part of the England Performance Programme, during which he captained the team to victory over the Titans in the final match of their tour, which ended last week.

"It's a very proud day and a job I've always dreamed of doing," said Gale. "Ever since I pulled a Yorkshire shirt on aged 10 I've dreamed of being Yorkshire captain. You don't think twice about accepting a job like this and you only have to look at the great names that have done the job before me. When Martyn [Moxon] asked me I was over the moon and I'm really excited about leading the team in 2010."

"I'm very pleased with our decision to appoint Andrew as captain," said Moxon, Yorkshire's director of cricket. "He is a talented cricketer with a good cricket brain and is extremely enthusiastic to do well. We will have a young side in 2010 and a young captain at the helm - together they have the opportunity to gel as a team and really push this club forward over the next few years.

"While we cannot guarantee instant success I believe we are developing a squad that will serve the county well in the future. I look forward to working with Andrew and wish him every success in his new role."

McGrath, 34, began his second spell as Yorkshire captain at the end of the 2008 season, following the retirement of Darren Gough, and produced a career-best 211 against Warwickshire in May. But his form fell away thereafter, and he failed to make a half-century in his last 19 championship innings as Yorkshire narrowly avoided relegation to the second division.