Mess over fixtures 'should have been sorted'

The county's director of professional cricket has long been

unhappy with a domestic schedule that has all the clarity of a veil of fog.

And following the publication yesterday of next summer's

fixtures, which are just as chaotic as last season's, Moxon said he hoped 2012 would bring an end to the confusion.

Cricket chiefs are contemplating a reduction in Championship and one-day cricket from 2012 but have decided to retain for next summer the congested format of 16 Championship games, 16 Twenty20 matches and 12 Clydesdale Bank 40 League fixtures.

"Once we knew the schedule for next year was going to be like it was last summer, there were always going to be problems," said Moxon.

"The existing format is far from ideal and benefits neither players nor supporters.

"I just hope there's a proper consultation process with a view to improving the situation for 2012.

"It's good the England and Wales Cricket Board are looking at the issue, but we've had a long time now to sort out the situation – it's been a major concern for everyone involved at the sharp end of the game – and it's disappointing we haven't got a solution for the coming season."

Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale – currently on tour with the England Performance Programme in Australia – was the playing member of a six-man working party set-up by the ECB last summer to find a way forward.

The working party took a majority decision that the amount of cricket needs to be cut but recommended no change to the domestic structure until 2012, enabling further discussions to take place.

The working party are understood to have recommended the Championship be reduced by two matches per county to 14, which would see the First Division

reduced from nine to eight teams, with 10 in Division Two.

Each county in Division One would play each other once, but each county in Division Two would play five sides twice and the other four once to get up to 14 games – a ridiculous idea.

The Twenty20 Cup is likely to be reduced after the working party recommended reverting to 10 group games per county, but that is a huge sticking point with smaller counties who rely on gate receipts from such games for their survival.

"From a player's and coach's point of view, the most important thing is that we have a proper prepare/play/recover template," added Moxon.

"They're talking about an eight-team/10-team Championship, but I think there will be a lot of opposition to that idea.

"A lot boils down to who has the biggest input; are the players and coaches going to be heard and taken notice of, or will commercial considerations have the biggest say?

"There's no point whingeing about next season's fixtures because every county has to make the best of them, but we need to sort things out once and for all from 2012 onwards."

Next year's fixtures are a laughing stock.

Once again, eight of Yorkshire's 16 Championship games are crammed in before the end of May – including back-to-back away matches at Liverpool, Taunton and Hove.

Yorkshire start their Twenty20 campaign against Warwickshire at Headingley Carnegie on June 3 – just two days after the Championship game at Hove is scheduled to finish.

That means Yorkshire could

arrive home in the early hours of June 2 and have only that day to prepare for the Twenty20 Cup.

Equally preposterous is the scheduling of a Championship match at Durham smack in the middle of the Twenty20 programme.

Yorkshire play Lancashire in the Twenty20 at Headingley on the evening of Friday, June 17 and the following morning begin their four-day match at Chester-le-Street. As soon as that game finishes they return to Twenty20 action.

Yorkshire's greatest logistical challenge, however, sees them travel to Holland for a CB40 match on July 31 and then start a Championship game at Hampshire just two days later.

Yorkshire's trip to Liverpool to face Lancashire in the Championship will be the first time Yorkshire have played a first-class fixture at the Aigburth venue since 1958.

Lancashire are playing seven of their eight home Championship games at Liverpool, Southport or Blackpool due to the reorientation of the Old Trafford square.

All Lancashire's one-day home games, however, will be played at Old Trafford, with Yorkshire visiting Manchester in the Twenty20 Cup on June 10.

For the first time, Yorkshire will play a Twenty20 game at Scarborough, with Durham their opponents on July 10.

North Marine Road will also host the Championship match against Worcestershire (July 11-14) plus the Festival fixtures against

Sussex in the Championship (August 17-20) and in the CB40 League (August 21).

Yorkshire will play four day/night one-day games – all away. They take on Northamptonshire (July 1) and Derbyshire (July 15) in the Twenty20, followed by floodlit CB40 encounters against Sussex (July 27) and Middlesex (August 10).

Yorkshire start their season with a Championship match against Worcestershire at New Road (April 8-11).

They end their campaign earlier than last season, with a Championship game against Somerset at Headingley (September 7-10).