Yorkshire CCC will resist attempts to reduce number of County Championship fixtures

YORKSHIRE are against plans to cut the number of County Championship matches next season amid the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Contingency plans have been drawn up by cricket chiefs that would see the number of Championship games cut from 14 to 10 to enable the money-spinning T20 Blast to be pushed back to the end of the season to maximise hopes of attracting full houses.

The government last night announced that spectators can return to sports grounds from May 17 at the earliest, subject to various conditions being met in the fight against Covid.

Grounds would be able to have 50 per cent capacity or 4,000 spectators, whichever is lower, while there would be a special provision for large, outdoor seated venues, allowing up to 10,000 people or 25 per cent capacity, whichever is lower.

It means that Headingley, which has a slightly reduced capacity at present of around 16,000 due to the Covid guidelines, would be able to accommodate about 4,000 fans.

Either way, Yorkshire’s first six Championship matches are set to be behind closed doors (including three at Headingley), with the club first scheduled to play in front of crowds against Lancashire at Old Trafford on May 27.

Yorkshire’s first home game with crowds would be against Sussex starting on June 3, exactly one week before they are due to begin their T20 Blast campaign at home to Birmingham Bears.

The government hopes to lift all limits on social contact on June 21, although nothing in its “roadmap” is set in stone. Should that target be met, though, all Headingley’s internationals, plus Yorkshire’s T20 home match against Lancashire on July 2, can have full crowds. Outdoor sports can resume from March 29.

Last night, Richard Gould, the Surrey chief executive, said he hoped fans may be allowed back into the Oval as early as April, considering that outdoor attractions such as London Zoo are permitted to open from April 12.

Any move towards a phased re-opening ahead of mid-May is likely to be supported by Yorkshire, with early-season county fixtures potentially being used as “spectator pilots” to help establish safe practice.

Either way, with even the June 21 date not enough to guarantee full crowds for all T20 Blast games countrywide, Yorkshire are keen to keep the schedule as it is and for there to be no reduction in Championship cricket.

Mark Arthur, the Yorkshire chief executive, said: “We want our members and supporters to be able to see as much Championship cricket as possible. They deserve it after the events of recent times, and we also believe it is important for the integrity of the competition.

“Last year, we didn’t get a chance to compete for the Bob Willis Trophy, even though we finished top of our group, as we lost over 450 overs to bad weather.

“We want as long a programme as possible for Championship cricket, but there are a number of counties that are not as committed to Championship cricket as Yorkshire.”

At present, the Championship is split into two parts.

In part one, with the 18 counties arranged into three new conferences of six, each team plays 10 games (five home, five away) before white-ball cricket takes centre stage.

Then, from late August, the Championship cranks up again with the counties split into three new divisions of six based on their finishing positions in the conferences, with each team playing a further four games.

The Division One winners would be county champions, and they would play-off against the second-placed side in Division One over five days for the separate Bob Willis Trophy.

However, the contingency plan would see this divisional stage scrapped and the T20 Blast held in its place.

The Championship would finish after the Conference stage (10 games) and be followed by a five-day final, although the exact details of how this would work are not yet clear, such as whether the competition would still be classed as the Championship.

That was not the case last year when teams competed for the Bob Willis Trophy over five group games, followed by a final, due to the truncated nature of a season that only started in August.

An already complicated situation is compounded by the inaugural edition of The Hundred, which runs from July 21 to August 21, and the 50-over Royal London Cup, which takes place concurrently from July 22 to August 19.

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