15-year-old Fisher makes history

Matthew Fisher became the youngest post-war county cricketer when he was picked for Yorkshire against Leicestershire aged just 15 years and 212 days.

Yorkshire were forced to turn to Fisher for their Yorkshire Bank

40 fixture at Scarborough to deal with an injury crisis that saw four teenagers make up the bowling attack. Ryan Gibson, 17, Ben Coad, 18, and 19-year-old Wilf Rhodes were also in the XI.

It highlighted Yorkshire's problems. They were forced to field a threadbare bowling attack last Sunday against Gloucestershire. Tim Bresnan is with England, Liam Plunkett and Jack Brooks have been injured and the workload Ryan Sidebottom and Steven Patterson have been forced to endure in the Championship meant they needed resting. 

Mercifully, Plunkett, looking very old at 28, returned from a thigh strain to face Leicestershire. But he lined up alongside a team-mate 13 years his junior. 

Born in York, Fisher has developed through the Yorkshire age-group teams and plays for Yorkshire Academy in the Yorkshire Premier League, where his 25 overs this season have gone for 3.48 runs an over. He has also played for Yorkshire 2nd XI and took 6 for 25 earlier this week against Leicestershire - the second-best figures for Yorkshire in the 2nd XI trophy. 

"Matthew deserves his call up into the squad," Yorkshire first-team coach Jason Gillespie said. "We monitor the progress of all our players and the feedback I have received on the way Matthew has been playing has been excellent. He is very young, but he has the ability to be successful." 

The youngest player to appear in a first-class match also turned out for Yorkshire when wicketkeeper Barney Gibson played against Durham MCCU at the age of 15 years and 27 days in April 2011. The aptly-named Charles Young is the youngest ever to appear in a county game, for Hampshire against Kent in 1867 aged 15 years and 131 days.