Former Kent director of cricket Paul Farbrace has assured his Yorkshire bosses that he does not view his new role as their second-team coach as a stepping stone to a bigger job.

The 44-year-old ex-wicketkeeper arrives at Headingley as part of the new coaching structure with vast experience, including a two-year spell as the assistant coach of the Sri Lankan national team.

Farbrace resigned from his post at Canterbury in September after a difficult season with Rob Key’s side and now he takes on a role which many will view as a step backwards in his career.

But he said: “It’s not something that I’m here for just for the sake of a job. I actually want to be here for a long period of time.

“A second-team role is different to a first-team role. In a first-team role, working with the same group of players, I can see that there’s a shelf-life. But with a second-team role, you get that bit more time to develop players and get them ready for first-class cricket.

“When you take players from the age of 15, 16, 17, you can help develop them as players and as people. That’s quite exciting for me.

“It’s not a stepping stone to another job. I want to be at Yorkshire for a long time to come and see the club grow and develop.”

Martyn Moxon, Farbrace’s new line manager, said that his new recruit “wanted to get his hands dirty again”, while captain Andrew Gale had a similar outlook.

“I think, having spoken to him, Paul is not keen on the idea of all the other things that come with being a director of cricket like he was at Kent,” said the Yorkshire skipper.

“He wants to get back to coaching and to play a part in helping our players come through right from the Academy to the first team. He wants to be a more hands-on coach like he was at Sri Lanka.”

Unlike Jason Gillespie, Ian Dews and Richard Damms, Farbrace is the only one of the new four-man coaching team not to have previous links with Yorkshire.

But he is not coming into the job completely cold, having worked with Gale, Tim Bresnan and Joe Sayers at England age-group level before.

Farbrace said: “I’ve known Galey since he was 14. I ran the England under-15s side, which he came through.”