Champions Yorkshire launch title defence in familiar surroundings

The 18 first-class counties yesterday announced their opening fixture in each of the three domestic tournaments ahead of the full fixture list being released at 9am today by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Yorkshire also start their NatWest T20 Blast and 50-over Royal London Cup campaigns at their Leeds headquarters.

They play Leicestershire Foxes in the T20 Blast on Friday, May 27 and Worcestershire Rapids in the Royal London Cup on Tuesday, June 7.

Yorkshire’s season actually starts on Sunday March 20, when they take on MCC in the annual Champion County match in Abu Dhabi.

Yorkshire won the corresponding game last year by nine wickets before going on to claim back-to-back Championships for the first time since they won three in a row in the 1960s under the captaincy of the late Brian Close. Andrew Gale’s team are odds-on favourites to emulate that feat and will be confident of making a winning start against Hampshire, who only narrowly avoided relegation this year and were thrashed in the game at Leeds in May.

Yorkshire’s victory by 305 runs on that occasion was only the ninth time in their history they had won by a margin of 300 runs or more.

It was one of 11 wins in 16 Championship games for the club – the most by any team since the move to two divisions in 2000.

Yorkshire’s final points haul of 286 was another record, while the 68-point margin to second-placed Middlesex was the biggest achieved by the Championship winners since Essex lifted the trophy in 1979.

Yorkshire also reached the semi-finals of the 50-over Cup last summer but finished a disappointing second-bottom of the T20 North Group.

Yorkshire do not play in the first week of the 2016 Championship season, with the games between Durham and Somerset, Nottinghamshire and Surrey, and Hampshire and Warwickshire all starting on April 10.

Middlesex and promoted Lancashire are the other First Division clubs who begin their Championship programme on April 17.