Kirby seeks fresh start

Kirby enjoyed his best season in 2003 with 67 Championship victims

Yorkshire fast bowler Steve Kirby has left the club after they agreed to release him from his contract.

A club statement said they had taken the decision with "great reluctance".

Kirby burst onto the county scene from club cricket in 2001 with 47 wickets in 10 games to help Yorkshire win the title for the first time in 33 years.

He has been hampered by injuries this summer and believes a fresh start will help him achieve his ambition of playing for England.

Kirby recently told the Yorkshire Post newspaper he had set himself a deadline for playing international cricket or he would quit the game altogether.

"That deadline is private, and I certainly have no intention of retiring for a long while yet, but this is an issue I feel strongly about.

"The purpose of county cricket is to create international cricketers - that's what Australian domestic cricket is for - and the day I can't play for England I will hang up my boots."

He added: "I want England so badly. I will never stop striving for it; that's just the way I am."

There will be no shortage of clubs interested in the 26-year-old, who has also been a member of the England Academy squad.

Australian batsman Phil Jaques, meanwhile, will return to Yorkshire in 2005 to fill one of their overseas player roles alongside Ian Harvey.

Jaques has been a big hit at Headingley this summer after joining the club to provide cover for Harvey and Darren Lehmann at various times, hitting a total of 1,118 runs in 19 innings.

All-rounder Vic Craven and spin bowler Andy Gray have both been released after failing to win regular places in the first team.