Cup run sets the standard for Yorkshire CCC - Dom Bess

His comments come as Yorkshire’s conquerors Hampshire are set to face Worcestershire today in the final at Trent Bridge.

“As I said to the lads after the semi-final, this is the standard now,” said Bess, whose side won seven of eight group games to reach the last four.

“It has to be, regardless of what competition we’re in.

"We have to be making quarter-finals, semi-finals and getting into finals.

"In my opinion, it’s a non-negotiable that Yorkshire should be there.

“In the T20 this year we were very disappointing again.

"If I’m honest, I don’t think there should be an excuse of not being at least in quarter-final cricket, although obviously T20 is fickle in nature.

“In the past five years we’ve been at one Finals Day and one 50-over semi-final.

"Ultimately, we’ve got to get there more often and get used to playing in those pressure moments.”

Yorkshire have not won a one-day prize since 2002, when they beat Somerset in the old Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.

They have only once reached a T20 final since that competition began the following year, losing to Hampshire at Cardiff in 2012.

Bess, 28, said he had still not quite got over Yorkshire’s semi-final defeat at Scarborough, where a career-best 142 from Liam Dawson helped Hampshire to an 18-run victory on the DLS method.

Imam-ul-Haq returned fire with a hundred of his own - his fourth of the tournament to go with three fifties - but for the 19th time in 22 one-day semi-finals going back to 1979, Yorkshire came up short at the penultimate hurdle.

“To be honest, I don’t think I’m quite over the 50-over comp,” added Bess, “because I think we should have been going to that final.

“Yes, I’m really proud of what we achieved, but moments like that you can’t let go, and I didn’t think we played our best cricket on the day.

“Saying that, we still almost won a game where we didn’t play our best cricket, so that shows where we are as a group.

“Obviously, it would have been nice to captain Yorkshire to a trophy, to get our hands on a trophy, but we’ll learn from the experience and use it as inspiration.”

Bess’s captaincy was undoubtedly a factor in Yorkshire’s success.

He would appear to be a future club captain-in-waiting and enjoyed the challenge of leading the side.

“When I came to Yorkshire initially, I remember ‘Galey’ (former head coach Andrew Gale) mentioning it (the captaincy) in terms of the future,” said Bess, who joined Yorkshire from Somerset in 2021, having previously played for the club on loan.

“The group we’ve got is certainly exciting, but to have the captaincy on your armband, or whatever, I don’t think it’s the be-all and end-all sort of thing.

“I think the group we've got, the players we've got… we've got a lot of good-thinking cricketers in there.

“I think it's them maximising and getting the best ideas out onto the pitch, that’s the real skill in it, because we’ve got some very smart cricketers at the moment and it’s just making sure that we get everything out on to the pitch and produce our best cricket.”

Yorkshire’s team spirit - led by Bess - seemed an important factor in their 50-over progress.

It’s a cliche to say that there is a good vibe in the dressing room but there genuinely is among a mainly young group of players who have grown up together, with their camaraderie shining through on the field and in their performances.

“We're all pretty good mates, and there’s certainly that level of respect from myself to the others,” said Bess.

“I think the understanding of being a captain is obviously not to be above anyone, but it's actually to be able to listen to everyone and make sure that players feel like they can have their opinion.

“There’s a big trust element to that, but I think if you get the players playing for each other then those players will eventually go further.

“The 50-over showed we’ve got some really good qualities in us, but if you want to be the best, certainly in county cricket, in all three forms, then you’ve got to do it for long enough.”

In some ways, it is Bess’s former team, Somerset, who are setting the standard.

They have been consistently impressive on-and-off the field for some years now, highlighted again by their victory last Saturday in the Vitality Blast, when chased a very challenging 195 to beat Hampshire at Edgbaston, seven days after a remarkable quarter-final win over Birmingham Bears, when Sean Dickson smashed an unbeaten 71 from 26 balls to inspire a four-wicket triumph with one ball left.

“Don't forget, the group they've had together is actually all my age-group, or two years above my age-group, where we’ve all driven up through the academy,” said Bess.

“I see a lot of similarities in Yorkshire in terms of the pathway through the academy.

“You've only got to look at it… Wharton, Hill, Revis, Luxton, Bean, and so on, those academy boys have been around for a long time now.

“We’ve got several lads now who are playing more and more cricket and, when you add overseas into that, then hopefully we can drive the big games and start winning trophies.”