Adil Rashid has defended his decision to pull out of Yorkshire’s final assault on a third successive County Championship title, citing serious illness to a close family member as leaving him in the wrong mental state to be able to play against Middlesex. Yorkshire have acknowledged to The Times that the wrist-spin bowler mentioned the situation when he outlined his decision late last week. They say it was given as a secondary reason for missing the game between the top two counties at Lord’s starting tomorrow. I have not travelled down with the Yorkshire lads this week as one of my closest family members has been very ill and was recently admitted to hospitalThe county made no mention of the illness – believed to be to his grandmother -…

Source: The Times September 19, 2016 16:03 UTC