Impossible to switch Yorkshire T20 games to avoid World Cup clashes

The game at Emerald Headingley will still commence at 6.30pm – 30 minutes before England would kick-off in Moscow against Russia or Croatia, provided that they beat Sweden in today’s quarter-final in Samara.

Yorkshire considered changing the start-time but said that it was not feasible due to the tickets that have already been sold and potential inconvenience to spectators.

The club also looked at rescheduling the match but said that there were complications involved in terms of fixture backlog.

Andy Dawson, Yorkshire’s commercial director, told The Yorkshire Post: “We considered the options very carefully, and obviously there’s lots of ifs, buts and maybes regarding the football.

“We looked at maybe starting at three, four o’clock, but it didn’t seem feasible, and considering how many times our members and supporters seem to get messed about with rescheduling and changing of times, we just felt that we’d keep it at the same time.

“We couldn’t have changed the day of the game; we spoke to the England and Wales Cricket Board to find out what we could and couldn’t do, but, all of a sudden, it becomes a bit of a backlog if you start deferring games, and there were complications for Derbyshire as well, I think.

“We’re obviously a cricket club, first and foremost, and we need to think about our members who are not necessarily caught up in the football euphoria, and the people who’ve already bought tickets based on the time and date of the game.”

Yorkshire have pre-sold around 1,200 tickets for the match, which is followed two days later by Steve Patterson’s side heading to Durham.

Derbyshire are also in action two days later at home to Notts.

Yorkshire are also playing two days after that, on World Cup final day, Sunday, July 15, against Worcestershire at New Road.

But the start-time of that match has been adjusted from 2.30pm to 1.00pm, meaning that it is scheduled to finish 15 minutes before the final kicks-off in Moscow at 4pm.

Worcestershire say that spectators would be able to stay at the New Road ground to watch the football on the various televisions at the stadium, while they are also considering the possibility of erecting a big screen should England progress.

Last month, the start-time of Yorkshire’s Royal London Cup semi-final against Hampshire at Southampton was brought forward from 2pm to 11am so that fans could watch England’s opening game of the World Cup against Tunisia later that evening.

Today’s women’s one-day international between England and New Zealand at Headingley will still start at 11am as scheduled.

However, many league cricket fixtures have amended hours of play owing to today’s England versus Sweden fixture (3pm), along with reduced overs in some cases.

Aire-Wharfe and Dales Council matches are also allowing tea intervals to be extended to a maximum of two hours and 20 minutes.