Yorkshire CCC players and coaches can now move forward after CDC sanctions decision says boss Darren Gough

The Yorkshire managing director of cricket admitted that he was disappointed that the club had been docked 48 points in the Championship due to the racism scandal, echoing the statement of the club’s board following the decision by the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), one which left Yorkshire rock bottom of Division Two – 84 points behind Worcestershire in the second and final promotion place with only four games left and a maximum of 96 points available.

But after almost two seasons of uncertainty hanging over the club, which was also fined £400,000 (three-quarters of which was suspended pending “any further serious breach of cricketing regulations” in the next two years), and retrospectively docked four points in this summer’s T20 Blast, Gough said he was grateful the saga was over and that the cricket department could properly look forward.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m just glad it’s over with, that side of it,” he said. “When I came in, January last year, we thought it would be done by March.

“I’m disappointed, of course, but I’m also pleased that we can put that to bed now and get on with knowing that what we are playing for is real points. It makes a difference to players’ mentality, to coaches’ mentality, and the club’s mentality, really, so every point we get now we earn and it goes towards something.

“It’s been very difficult this year not quite knowing whether we were going to get done points this year, or next year, so we can put that to bed on a cricketing front.

“I think the players have been remarkably good the way they’ve just got on with it; obviously, they’re disappointed the same as I am, the same as Ottis (Gibson, head coach) is and all the coaches.

“We’ve worked really hard this year to try and play a brand of cricket we want to play. It’s not worked all the time, but if you’re a cricket fan and you understand cricket, you’ll see, if you go through the games, we’ve been in great positions in every game, and I think we’d have won four more without bad weather - Leicester at home, the two against Sussex and Worcester away. We’d still have been in a good position overall without a points deduction; it’s unfortunate, but it’s the way it is.”

On the flip side, Gough said the clarity meant Yorkshire could afford to look more closely at some younger players when the Championship resumes early next month.

That Yorkshire were still making a real attempt to win promotion was evidenced by the short-term signings of such as overseas players Mark Steketee and Ryan Rickleton, following the temporary loss to Pakistan duty of club captain Shan Masood, but there is no longer the temptation to go down that route.

“We can now afford to give some of our younger players some more experience,” said Gough. “I think that’s an opportunity for us now, and we’ll be very aware of that going forward for the last four games.

“We’ve got a few players that we need to have a look at, and need to put under pressure in games against better opposition, because there is a big gap between first and second team. There’s a huge gap, and we need to put them in those situations as much as we can.”

• Yorkshire say spectators can exchange tickets for last week’s Roses washout at Scarborough for any of the club’s remaining home Championship/one-day games this season, or next season.

It follows a website error which stated that a cash refund was available contrary to Yorkshire’s usual policy and most of their county rivals.