Shan Masood opens up on Derbyshire sentiments, Micky Arthur's influence and Yorkshire's Blast revival

The Yorkshire County Cricket Club skipper Shan Masood is looking forward to seeing his former teammates as his side takes on Derbyshire in the Vitality Blast on Sunday, June 4, at the Headingley in England.

Masood said that the upcoming fixture is not something he wants to get too emotional about. The Pakistan batter also stated that it will be wonderful to see everyone again and have a chat before and after the game. He did, however, admit that when it comes to game time, he will simply be professional and is optimistic that the boys can pull off another successful result. 

“It is not a fixture that I want to get too emotional about. At the end of the day, it’ll be nice to see everyone again and nice to have a chat before and after the game, but I think when it’s game time, I’m just going to be professional, and hopefully, the boys can pull off another good result,” Masood said as quoted by Yorkshire Post.

Masood, who had a fantastic season at Derbyshire last year, amassing over 1,800 runs at an average of over 60, felt it was wonderful at his previous team. The 33-year-old also expressed gratitude to Derbyshire and the head of cricket, Mickey Arthur. He went on to say that leaving Derbyshire was one of the most difficult decisions he had to make. 

“It was special at Derbyshire, I owe a lot to them, to Mickey Arthur (head of cricket), and it was an amazing dressing room environment there. It was probably one of the toughest decisions I had to make to leave them, in fact," he added.

Want to carry on our quality against Derbyshire: Masood

Masood went on to say that it was fantastic for his team to bag wins over Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, two strong T20 teams, after starting the tournament with three straight defeats against Birmingham, Worcestershire, and Durham. He also said that what they've done demonstrates their quality, and they want to keep it going against Derbyshire. He further said that whoever makes the best decisions and makes the fewest mistakes will win, hoping that it will be them. 

“It just goes to show that you’re never down and out. There’s always a way to get things back on track. I hold on to the quote that I said before the Notts game that it would be nice to start our season off with wins against Notts and Lancs.

“We’ve done that, and that shows the quality we’ve got in the side; it shows we’ve got something within our ranks. Now we want to carry it on against Derbyshire and it is going to be ‘on the day’. Whoever plays the better cricket, whoever makes the right decisions, whoever makes the fewer mistakes is going to come out on top. Hopefully that will be us," he added.