Yorkshire will begin the search for Jason Gillespie’s replacement at the end of the season after announcing the Australian is to leave Headingley.

Gillespie has opted not to extend his five-year stay with the county, and he will return home to Australia at the end of the current campaign.

The White Rose hierarchy are big admirers of both Gloucestershire’s Richard Dawson and England assistant coach Paul Farbrace.

But they want to concentrate on winning a third successive Specsavers County Championship title, which continues against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl tomorrow.

Gillespie offered his resignation shortly after Yorkshire’s Royal London one-day Cup semi-final defeat to Surrey on Sunday, with the news confirmed yesterday morning.

A Yorkshire statement placed on record their thanks to Gillespie, while pointing to his incredible record of just five Championship defeats in 76 games.

It went on: “His wife Anna and their four children have recently returned to Australia.

“And, with the 41-year-old’s existing commitments to coaching Adelaide Strikers in Australia’s Big Bash, Jason feels the close season is an appropriate time to part company.

“The focus will now be on the remaining four Specsavers County Championship fixtures, beginning with Wednesday’s trip to face Hampshire, and on securing the first Championship treble seen at Headingley since the 1960s.

“Martyn Moxon will not begin the search for a new 1st XI coach until the end of the current season.”

Four-day captain Andrew Gale has hailed Gillespie’s contribution to Yorkshire, saying: “It’s a different club than when he came in.

“We had just been relegated, but we were at the bottom of our game at the start of 2012.

“It needed someone like him to come in and free us up, to develop the young players such as Bairstow, Ballance, Root, Rafiq.

“That’s exactly what he did. He changed the mentality of the club. We are both on the same page with the brand of cricket we want to play.

“We want to send him out on a high, and it would be a fairytale end if we send him out with three in a row. But the lads will want to do it for themselves as much as anything.

“I’ve had a good idea for a while that Dizzy would be leaving. I had a long chat with him last week.

“I’m obviously very disappointed, but it’s the right thing to do by him and his family, and I wish him well.”

That Gillespie, who will speak publicly today, is leaving is no surprise, despite saying on more than one occasion that he was happy at Yorkshire.

In late May, he turned down the chance to become Australia’s new bowling coach, citing time away from his family as the reason.

But earlier this month, his young family returned home to Adelaide.

This winter will see him take charge of Adelaide Strikers for a second season, but he is not expected to be short of long-term offers.

Heading into tomorrow’s meeting with second bottom Hampshire, Yorkshire are just five points behind leaders Middlesex.

Dawson is likely to be high on Yorkshire’s wanted list. He made a big impression during his year in charge of Yorkshire’s second team in 2014 before leaving for the first-team role at Gloucester.

Farbrace, similarly, impressed as Dawson’s predecessor at Yorkshire, but whether he could be enticed back from his current role as England’s assistant coach is a big question mark.