Yorkshire CCC primed for possible Clifton Park return as Cup bid continues

Nick Kay, the York CC secretary, said: “We were asked whether we’d be happy to stage a potential quarter-final or semi-final at York, and there was only one answer to that, which was ‘yes’. Let’s hope we get there.

“We had two great days hosting Yorkshire last week, and the ground’s set up and ready if needed. Fingers crossed the club gets through.”

The way it works is as follows: the top-three in both groups progress to the knockouts. The group winners go straight to a home semi-final (as Yorkshire did last year). They then host the winners of the play-offs, which pits the second-placed teams at home to the third-placed sides from the opposite group.

The play-offs are on Friday, August 14 and the semi-finals on Sunday, August 16. Both matches have a reserve day - as does the final at Trent Bridge on Sunday, September 20.

Last year, Yorkshire played their semi-final at Scarborough, losing to Hampshire by 18 runs on the DLS method used for deciding rain-affected games. Headingley, the club’s headquarters, will be getting ready to stage the Test match against Pakistan from mid-August onwards, rendering York a sensible alternative.

“I think because our temporary stand was in place so close to the end of the group stage that the natural fit was to come back here for any knockout match,” said Kay.

“I think commercially, from Yorkshire's perspective, the stand's there and they may as well fill it, and if we can sell 4,500 tickets then it's an opportunity to generate extra revenue.”

Kay was thrilled with the interest in last week’s matches, which only cemented the ground’s reputation. A crowd of 3,919 saw Yorkshire beat holders Worcestershire by six wickets on Wednesday, then a ground record 4,859 watched a seven-wicket win over Durham – and a certain Ben Stokes – on Friday.

“We had terrific turnouts,” said Kay. “I was astonished with the numbers for the Worcestershire game, absolutely astonished.

“I thought we might have 2,500 people in the ground, but to have just under 4,000 was remarkable. Friday, of course, was something else entirely. We were jammed for a Lancashire game a couple of years ago when the weather was good, but the crowd was deeper around the ground this time than it’s ever been before.”

Crowds for the One-Day Cup have been good around the country, with more than 5,000 at Lord’s on Sunday for Yorkshire’s match against Middlesex.

In contrast, crowds for The Hundred have been mostly disappointing, despite the vast amount of money that the tournament has raised.

Kay believes that people will always want to watch a winning Yorkshire team. The current one has won four out of six games in the One-Day Cup, with the last two group fixtures against Derbyshire at Scarborough on Friday and against Essex at Chelmsford on August 11.

“We've been very lucky at York over the last few years because we do get pretty good weather and that obviously helps with the crowds,” he said.

“But I always think that, no matter what, if Yorkshire are winning then they are going to be well supported.

“If they’d have lost their first three games in this competition then the crowd might not have been quite as big for the Worcestershire match, and although there was the Ben Stokes factor against Durham, the bottom line is that the Yorkshire team is playing good cricket and people want to come and watch them.”