Yorkshire CCC preparing contingency plans due to Middle East conflict

Gavin Hamilton, the Yorkshire general manager of cricket, said on Monday that the men’s tour is “99 per cent not going to happen”, with the women’s trip similarly doubtful “unless there’s a massive change”.

He said Yorkshire are now looking at various alternatives with South Africa one possible replacement destination.

“The pre-season tour, certainly for the men, is highly unlikely as it stands for obvious reasons, and I think that even if the situation settles down, we just can’t risk having players stranded out there,” said Hamilton.

“So that’s where we are at the moment with that.

“Re the women, we’re probably going to have a look at that next week, early next week, but, again, unless there’s a massive change, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll look to take them there.

“We’re looking at a couple of options now in South Africa - they’ve always had really good facilities and are very hospitable, very open to putting on a bit of opposition and things like that, so that seems to be the favoured option, but we’re doing everything we can to get our players outdoors ahead of the new season.”

Yorkshire are one of six counties believed to have scheduled concurrent pre-season trips to the Middle East.

Those plans are now unavoidably affected following the US-Israeli military action against Iran at the weekend, which led to retaliatory attacks across the region by Iran’s regime.

Three Yorkshire players are stranded in the area - Jonny Bairstow, the club captain on holiday with his family in Dubai, plus Matty Revis and James Wharton, who are with the England Lions squad in Abu Dhabi.

The Lions’ one-day series against Pakistan Shaheens is in abeyance after Sunday’s second game of five was cancelled.

“As well as those lads, we’ve also got 14 lads who have been out training in Australia who are looking at alternative flights to get back here as soon as they can,” added Hamilton.

“Our Ops team are helping them with that to make sure that they’re all back in the country as soon as possible.

“They were supposed to come back at the weekend, but we made it very clear to them that they should just hang fire for a couple of days.

“If possible, we might be able to get everyone away to another destination potentially towards the back end of next week, maybe for a shorter pre-season tour.”

Bairstow, Revis and Wharton are among the circa 300,000 Britons currently in the Gulf, where much of the airspace is still closed.

Around a third of that number have registered their presence with the UK government to ensure that they receive the latest Foreign Office updates and advice.

Bairstow, who asked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for help at the weekend on the social site X, took to the platform again on Monday to clarify that he is in a different situation to the Lions.

“For those writing that I’m with the England Lions team, I am not,” he posted. “I am with my young family in Dubai.

“Sure the England Lions security staff will be doing all they can to get them out of Abu Dhabi, but I am trying to keep my family safe and get us out of here.”

Bairstow, 36, has also written on X to the airline Emirates.

“We haven’t had any communication post flight getting cancelled,” he said.

“Tried the lines of communication but nothing. Could someone please be in contact.”

As well as the disruption to Yorkshire CCC’s impending travel plans, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said that England women’s proposed trip to Abu Dhabi this week has been delayed.

However, it confirmed that England’s T20 World Cup travel plans remain in place ahead of Thursday’s semi-final against India in Mumbai.