Picture by Paul Kane/Getty Images. Sam Whiteman at the crease for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield in October.
Western Australia captain Sam Whiteman is returning home to join Yorkshire on a three-year, all-format contract.
He is a stylish left-handed batter who kept wicket earlier in his career before a nasty finger injury pretty much curtailed that side of his game.
Born in Doncaster, Whiteman emigrated to Bunbury in Western Australia aged three and moved up through the age-groups to pro cricket with his adopted state as well as gaining Australia A recognition.
He has captained WA in the Sheffield Shield for the last two seasons.
Whiteman, who will be 34 by the time the new English summer starts, will bring runs to Yorkshire’s top order but also experience of winning trophies.
He is a three-time Big Bash winner with the Perth Scorchers, having triumphed in finals in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Picture by James Worsfold/Getty Images. Sam Whiteman in action for the Perth Scorchers.
With WA, he is also a three-time Sheffield Shield winner – 2022, 2023 and 2024 – and a four-time One-Day Cup winner in 2014, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The latter two Shield successes came as captain, as did the latter One-Day Cup win.
He is closing in on 7,000 first-class runs with 17 centuries and also has a List A ton to his name. He has opened and batted elsewhere in the top order.
In the 2022 Shield final, a draw against Victoria – WA took the title having finished top of the league – he scored 85 and 120 opening.
Whiteman played county cricket for Northamptonshire in 2023, scoring 913 runs in 19 matches across all formats, including two hundreds. He didn’t actually play against Yorkshire during that summer.
In July 2014, whilst playing for Australia A against their Indian counterparts in Brisbane, Whiteman shared a seventh-wicket partnership of 371 with Mitch Marsh, posting an unbeaten 174 in the first innings of a draw.
That was his maiden first-class century, and the partnership remains the highest seventh-wicket stand in Australian first-class cricket and the third highest anywhere in the world.
Picture by Dylan Burns/Getty Images. There will no doubt be plenty more of this in Yorkshire colours in the next three years.
Whiteman also played second-team cricket for Surrey earlier in his career as well as league cricket in that county and Sussex also.
He has captained WA on 41 occasions across the formats since early 2021, scoring eight centuries in those matches.
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