Cricket: Yorkshire's majestic opening batsman and former captain, Martyn Moxon, has been forced to quit as a player because of continuing back problems.

Moxon, 37, who made a century on his Yorkshire debut in 1981, announced his decision at Headingley yesterday after he had informed members of the cricket committee.

The move was not unexpected and Moxon will now concentrate on his new role with Yorkshire as director of coaching which he took up last November.

Moxon played in only ten Test matches for England which was poor reward for a batsman of his class but he was dogged throughout his career by injuries and other misfortunes which often occurred at significant times.

In all first class matches during his 17 year career, he plundered 21,161 runs at an outstanding average of 42.83 and for Yorkshire he made 18,973 first class runs with 41 centuries at an even better average of 43.71.

It was typical of Moxon's bad luck that he should be dismissed for 99 in making his biggest Test score, against New Zealand at Auckland on the 1987-88 tour, but he achieved a high degree of consistency on the county scene with his textbook, yet sparkling, strokeplay which brought him five double centuries in the County Championship.

Moxon had an operation in the autumn to remove a piece of disc from his back, a long-suffering problem which caused him to miss over half of last season, but he was unable to achieve the degree of fitness he had hoped for when he resumed training a few weeks' ago.

"I have known in my own mind since January that my retirement from first class cricket was likely to happen soon but after playing for 17 years you cannot take such a decision lightly," he said.

"I know, however, that it is the right decision, and I have spoken to Yorkshire and England physiotherapist Wayne Morton who agrees with me.

"It was only right and proper that skipper David Byas should know where he would stand with me as a player this season and I now intend to devote myself full time to my coaching role."

Moxon said that his century on debut against Essex, the winning of the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1987 and his highest score of 274 not out in the victory against Worcestershire under his captaincy in 1994 were among the highlights of his career.

Byas said that Yorkshire were losing a very experienced batsman in Moxon but they had excellent young openers in Michael Vaughan, Anthony McGrath and Matthew Wood and he hoped to see them all stand up and produce the goods.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.