Patterson delays his wedding to chase T20 glory

Patterson, 29, was Yorkshire’s star performer in the County Championship this summer, his haul of 48 wickets at 20 playing a big part in helping them back into Division One at the first attempt.

However, Patterson was deemed surplus to requirements in the Twenty20 Cup and has not played a competitive match in the format since June last year.

As Yorkshire go in search of the £1.6m winner’s cheque in South Africa, with their first qualifying game taking place today against Uva Next in Johannesburg (12.30pm start UK time), Patterson hopes the matrimonial delay can work in his favour.

“I’m desperate to make my mark in Twenty20 cricket and to play a big part in this competition,” said Patterson, who was due to marry fiancee Beth on October 6 but will now get married early next month before honeymooning in New Zealand.

“It’s frustrating not to have played more Twenty20 in recent times, particularly with the lads having done so well, because you want to be a part of it all.

“The only time I really played Twenty20 was a couple of years ago, but I played so much cricket in that year that, if I’m being honest, I felt quite jaded at times and didn’t really do myself justice,” he said.

“I was kind of thrown in at the deep end – bowling at the start, bowling at the end – and it was quite a steep learning curve, but I’ve learned a lot more about my cricket since then and I believe I’ve got a lot to offer as a Twenty20 bowler.”

Patterson played in Yorkshire’s Champions League warm-up match against Sialkot Stallions on Sunday, capturing two wickets in a 23-run win.

He is now hoping to keep his place throughout the tournament, with Yorkshire deprived of Tim Bresnan (not released by England) and Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc, who is representing his home franchise Sydney Sixers.

“There’s a couple of bowlers from the regular line-up who are unavailable, so I’m hoping there will be more opportunities for me in South Africa,” said Patterson, who has taken 17 wickets in 20 Twenty20 games at 38.

“I’m just concentrating on improving myself so that, if I can get a run in the side, I can do myself justice.

“Although I haven’t played competitive Twenty20 for a while, I’ve still put the work in and I’m still there and ready.

“If called upon, I would certainly back myself to do a job.”

The Champions League is an invitational event which is curiously designed and split into two parts – a qualifying stage followed by the main competition.

Yorkshire are one of six sides in the qualifiers, which feature two groups of three, with their second qualifying match taking place tomorrow against West Indian champions Trinidad & Tobago at Centurion.

The top team in each qualifying group goes through to the competition proper, which already has eight confirmed participants from India, South Africa and Australia, whose cricket boards bankroll the whole shebang.

Those eight sides, plus the two qualifiers, are split into two groups of five (Yorkshire would be in Group B along with Chennai Super Kings, Highveld Lions, Mumbai Indians and Sydney Sixers) with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals, where they would collect a guaranteed £322,000.

“There are some significant financial rewards on offer but we’re not looking at this as a pay-day,” insisted Patterson.

“On the contrary, I think for most of the lads it’s just an opportunity and a great experience.

“It’s a tournament on the worldwide stage, there’s world-class players from all around the globe and it’s going to be a great learning curve. It’s a bit like Finals Day in the sense that we’d never been there before until this year, and what a fantastic day that turned out to be.”

Nothing is really expected of Yorkshire, who qualified for the Champions League by reaching the Twenty20 Cup final along with winners Hampshire.

But Patterson believes they can make a mark.

“Clearly there are going to be some world-class players involved and we’re going to have to play well just to get through the qualifiers,” he said. “But I honestly feel that if we play the cricket we’re capable of, the cricket we’ve played in the domestic stuff, there’s no reason we can’t be successful.

“If you look at our middle order – Ballance, Root, Miller – they can score very heavily if they need to and they’re exciting to watch.

“I don’t think there’s many teams around the world who have better players than those lads.”