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Championship-winning Yorkshire coaches to receive honorary degrees
Yorkshire’s First team coach, Jason Gillespie, will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sport Science on Monday 25 July at 5pm, whilst Director of Cricket, Martyn Moxon, will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sport on Thursday 28 July at 5pm.
As a player, Jason was part of a golden era for Australian cricket taking 402 wickets for his country in all forms of international cricket, including 259 in 71 Tests.
‘Dizzy’, as he’s known throughout the world of cricket, is Australia’s sixth highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and his playing career will also always be remembered for a stunning double-century he scored as a night-watchman against Bangladesh in his last Test match.
Jason has been First team coach at Yorkshire since 2012 and guided the White Rose to County Championship promotion in his first season in charge as well as to the final of the Friends Life t20 and to the Champions League t20 competition. Whilst in his second season in charge, he oversaw Yorkshire’s second-placed finish in the top tier of the Championship.
In 2014 Jason claimed the first title of his coaching career when Yorkshire saw off the challenge of second-placed Warwickshire and third-placed Nottinghamshire to win the Championship title for the first time in 13 years. He helped Yorkshire to repeat their County Championship success in 2015, the county’s first consecutive titles since 1968 as well as being appointed as Adelaide’s T20 Strikers coach.
In a playing career for Yorkshire spanning 17 seasons, Martyn, an opening batsman, scored 21,161 First class runs, with a high score of 274 not out, and is one of only 15 men to have scored more than 18,000 first-class runs for Yorkshire. His haul of 41 Yorkshire centuries in first-class cricket is bettered only by Geoffrey Boycott, post the Second World War, earning him a place amongst Yorkshire’s great players.
After finishing his distinguished playing career, Martyn was appointed Director of Professional Cricket at Yorkshire in 1997, before being appointed Head Coach at Durham in 2001. He returned to Yorkshire in 2007 as Director of Cricket and, in 2012, instigated the club’s coaching restructure ahead of the county championship season, which saw Jason Gillespie and Paul Farbrace arrive at Headingley Carnegie as first and second team coaches respectively.
Martyn played a significant role in Yorkshire’s LV= County Championship back-to-back title success in 2014 and 2015, leading them to a first County Championship title for 13 years in 2014 and the county’s first consecutive titles since 1968 in 2015.
Leeds Beckett University Chancellor, Sir Bob Murray CBE, said: “In recent years Yorkshire have enjoyed stellar success, winning back-to-back County Championships with style. Both Martyn and Jason have been at the heart of this success, instilling confidence and belief into their side and ensuring that nothing is left to chance.
“It is a privilege for us to recognise the contribution that two cricketing greats like Jason and Martyn have brought, and continue to bring, to sport at both a regional and international level and we look forward to hearing them share their experiences with our students at graduation."
The full list of honorary degrees to be awarded by Leeds Beckett University can be found here.