Yorkshire have announced that Anthony McGrath will no longer be their captain in 2010.

The club have called a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to announce their new skipper.

Left-handed batsman Andrew Gale, who has just spent the last five weeks with the ECB Performance Programme squad in South Africa, is the leading candidate for the job.

Gale’s rivals for the role include the likes of Joe Say-ers and Jacques Rudolph, who captained the side on five occasions in McGrath’s absence in 2009.

But the fact that Sayers does not play one-day cricket and Rudolph is currently in South Africa playing domestic cricket make their appointments unlikely.

It is understood that McGrath has not been sacked as captain, and the 34 year-old former England batsman will remain at Headingley as a player.

McGrath narrowly man-aged to keep Yorkshire in the LV County Championship’s top-flight, scoring 825 runs at an average of 33.

After Yorkshire’s incredible Championship win against Sussex at Hove in September, he was coy on his future as captain.

He said: “I’ve said many times that I’m very proud to be Yorkshire captain.

“I would definitely like to carry on as captain, but at the end of the season is the time to reflect.

“From two or three months ago, there’s been a lot of people saying a lot of things. You’re only human, and those things get to you after a while.”

Then former Yorkshire bowler Matthew Hoggard’s comments that he had had discussions with the Headingley hierarchy about being captain in 2010 seemed to undermine McGrath’s position.

But chief executive Stewart Regan denied that was ever the case as he announced that Hoggard had not been offered an ex-tension to his contract.

Gale, who turned 26 last month, is a virtual ever present in the Yorkshire side in all forms of cricket.

The Cleckheaton star was named as the club’s player of the year after scoring 828 Championship runs and 689 one-day runs.

The former England under-19 batsman’s rapid improvement was first recognised by the national selectors when he was called up to the England Lions side for the two-day friendly against the touring Australians in August at Canterbury.

And then he was one of four Yorkshire players to be named in the Group B of the Performance Programme squad to tour South Africa.

The squad returned home earlier this week, with Gale having captained them during the trip.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire’s pre-season tour will be held in Barbados from March 14-28.