Waiting game for Yorkshire CCC as cricket faces a summer without overseas stars

Former England captain Michael Vaughan is among those who have advocated the move due to the coronavirus crisis.

Yorkshire face losing “a significant seven-figure sum” as a result of the pandemic and the game in England anything up to £400m depending on how much action takes place this year.

But while accepting that a temporary stop on overseas players is possible, Moxon said: “I think it’s too early to say at this stage.

“To be honest, every county at the moment is not sure what the final financial position will be, and until we know that we’re not going to speculate on what we might have to do.

“At the minute, we know we’re going to lose money, it’s just how much.

“If it’s financially feasible and we can get good overseas players in, happy days, but we might have to cut our cloth and make tough decisions.”

Yorkshire had signed three overseas players this summer in an effort to challenge strongly on all fronts.

The contracts of India spinner Ravi Ashwin, West Indies’ batsman/wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran and South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj have necessarily been terminated, with the club indicating that they would like to re-sign all three if circumstances permit.

Vaughan is one of those leading calls for overseas players to be scrapped for the time being.

Writing in his column for the Daily Telegraph, he said that “overseas players should be cut from the Championship for a few years to save money”.

The former Yorkshire batsman added that he would “reduce the Championship from 14 to 10 games per summer”.

“Ten games is enough in the Championship,” wrote Vaughan. “There would be more intensity to the cricket, fast bowlers would have more rest and be fresher, there would be more time in between games.

“The county game is a joke at times with the amount of travel and play. There is no time for rehab, or prehab. It is a grind.

“Once the conveyor belt starts in April it is non-stop for five months and it is asking too much from the players.”

Moxon believes it unlikely that sweeping changes to the schedule will happen.

“Personally speaking, I can’t see the programme changing,” he said.

“I think it will be how people manage their finances that will change rather than changing the playing programme.

“I think people will have to cut their cloth with regards to who they employ.”

As debate continues around overseas players and whether it might be prudent to scrap them for now, Mitchell Starc, the Australia fast bowler, has said that he would like to return to county cricket as an overseas player at some point in the future.

Starc, who played for Yorkshire in 2012, did not specifically say that he was eying a return to Emerald Headingley, although he did speak warmly about his time at the club.

The 30-year-old was a key member of the team that helped Yorkshire to their first T20 Finals Day appearance along with fellow overseas player David Miller, the South Africa batsman.

“I loved my time there,” said Starc, who was Yorkshire’s leading wicket-taker in T20 that summer with 21 at 10.38.

However, a man who played only two County Championship games for the club – capturing seven wickets at 21.85 – did admit that he would have liked more of a taste of four-day cricket had that been available. “I would have loved to have played some more Championship cricket – I played a lot of white-ball initially – but I learnt a lot while I was there,” he reflected.

Starc continued: “If a window arose and there was an opportunity, I’d certainly go (back to county cricket).”

Starc had been due to link up with his former Yorkshire team-mate England’s Jonny Bairstow at Welsh Fire in the inaugural edition of The Hundred this summer.

But that tournament has been put back for a year due to the crisis.

Starc, who made his Test debut in December, 2011, has gone from strength to strength since that brief spell at Yorkshire eight years ago.

He has taken 244 wickets in 57 Test matches at 26.97; 178 wickets in 91 one-day internationals at 22.22; and 43 wickets in 31 T20 internationals at 18.65, becoming one of the finest bowlers in the world.