Managing Yorkshire will be my main job – Moxon

Moxon will no longer go to every first-team game or necessarily help to pick the side, but will go instead where he is most required.

The former Yorkshire and England opening batsman, who also disclosed his job title had changed from director of professional cricket to that of director of cricket, will divide his time between the first XI, the second team and the county’s Academy and age-group sides in more of a supervisory position.

It follows the appointment as first-team coach of former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie, who will primarily be responsible for the first team along with captain Andrew Gale, and the recruitment of former Kent and Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace, who will be in charge of the second XI.

Moxon will help support and oversee Gillespie, Farbrace and new director of cricket development Ian Dews, who is to run the Academy and age-group teams, in what amounts to the cricketing equivalent of a director of football role working above a football manager and his coaching staff.

Clarifying how the new structure would work, Moxon explained: “My job will effectively be to manage the whole cricket operation. That means I will manage the three coaches – Jason, Paul and Ian directly and various other people indirectly such as the physio, and so on.

“It gives me the flexibility to go wherever I need to go, whether that’s with the first XI or one of the other sides.

“Instead of having general batting and bowling coaches, as we did in the past, Colin Graves (the Yorkshire chairman) was keen for people to have more specific responsibilities and to eradicate grey areas in terms of which coach was responsible for what.”

Gale will retain the major say on team selection and remains committed to playing positive cricket.

He will take advice from Gillespie and also Moxon as and when appropriate.

“Predominantly, Andrew and Jason will pick the team and I will have an input if required,” said Moxon. “But Jason will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the first team just as Paul will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the second XI.

“It’s my job to pull everything together and I’ll be floating around if you like, helping wherever I need to and making sure that everyone is working towards the same ends.

“It gives me more flexibility because, prior to this, I had eight people directly reporting to me, which was very time consuming and I was chasing my tail a lot of the time.”

The appointment of Gillespie and Farbrace has been complemented by the arrival of new development manager Richard Damms, who will report directly to Dews.

The winds of change have also ushered in Australian batsman Phil Jaques as the club’s overseas player for the next two years – and Moxon said there could yet be another arrival.

“We’ve got the potential for making one more signing possibly,” he added, with Yorkshire understood to be targeting a pace bowler as they attempt to bounce back from County Championship relegation.

“But we’re not going to rush into anything. If we can strengthen, we will, but I am very excited about the quality we’ve got now on and off the field.

“It was an awful feeling to get relegated and the important thing is to try to get back as quickly as possible.”

Moxon feels Yorkshire are fortunate to have signed Jaques, who played for the club in 2004 and 2005. The 32-year-old left-hander averages almost 50 in first-class cricket and has proved himself a consistent run-scorer in English conditions.

“It’s difficult to get quality overseas players for any length of time these days, so to get Phil for two seasons is fantastic,” said Moxon.

“I think Phil realises it’s unlikely he’ll get back into the Australia side now and he wants very much to play for Yorkshire and to help the young players here as much as possible.

“Last year, we set about trying to go it alone with our own players, but I think it became evident that we still need a little bit of help to achieve what we want to achieve in the short-term.

“Probably too many of our own players are still learning the game, and I think we need that little bit of quality experience at this stage to help them along.”

Gillespie – currently coaching Zimbabwe franchise MidWest Rhinos – will take up his new role in March in time for a pre-season trip to Barbados.

As in recent years, Yorkshire are to fly to the West Indies along with a handful of county sides to help guarantee outdoor practice ahead of the season.

“It’s excellent preparation,” said Moxon. “The English seasons start earlier and earlier – it’s potentially April 5 next year – and it’s very difficult to get match practice in this country that early in the year.”

Yorkshire pace bowler Moin Ashraf, 19, has signed a contract extension.

The deal will keep him at Headingley Carnegie until at least the end of the 2013 season.