Yorkshire followers to miss out due to tickets shortage

A crowd of 8,000 packed into Headingley Carnegie on Wednesday night as Yorkshire booked their first appearance in the Friends Life Twenty20 finale with a last-eight victory against Worcestershire.

In the semi-finals, Andrew Gale’s Yorkshire will meet Sussex while Hampshire face Somerset before the 6.45pm final at the SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff on Saturday, August 25 – the same day that Leeds Rhinos lock horns with Warrington Wolves in rugby league’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley.

All four counties received only 1,100 tickets with the rest, which went on general sale last year, having already been sold.

Yorkshire’s 6,000 members get the first chance to snap up the county’s allocation and any remaining tickets will go on sale on August 12.

Disgruntled supporters feel the choice of Wales, over bigger Test grounds in England like 25,000-capacity Edgbaston or Trent Bridge, means White Rose supporters will miss out on the showpiece day.

Ironically, Warwickshire’s Test ground has been allocated the finals day for the next four years.

“I’m disappointed that the game is being played there – it should be played on a major Test ground in the middle of the country,” said lifelong county member Richard Levin.

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that it’s being played in Wales in a very small ground.

“To me, the obvious place to play it is at Edgbaston as it’s in the middle of the country and with it being in Wales, Yorkshire’s fans will be travelling far further than the others.

“It’s also very disappointing that we have only got 1,100 tickets but the capacity of the crowd isn’t that huge and that’s obviously a factor.

“If it was being played at Edgbaston or Trent Bridge then the allocation would be higher but I just think it’s really strange that it is being played at Cardiff.”

Steve Elworthy, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s director of marketing and communications, said the ECB were committed to spreading the game around and this was the primary reason for this year’s finals day being staged in Cardiff.

They were awarded the showpiece occasion by the independent ‘Major Match Group’.

“The board have a policy of spreading cricket around the country so there is obviously a geographic element to this,” he said.

“Cricket is played as far north as Leeds and the ECB try and spread cricket across England and Wales.”

Elworthy also said clubs are only allocated 1,100 tickets each by design. “It’s been in the region of that number previously and I remember some years where some counties have only taken up as little as maybe 100 or 200 of that whole allocation,” he said.

“The tickets then go back on sale and that then leaves a bit of a problem because you have got to try and sell them in the run-up to finals day, after the quarter-finals.

“There’s just a general feeling that this is about the right number for the number of supporters travelling around the country.

“I certainly hope there’s a lot of people from Yorkshire there as I watched their quarter-final on TV and the support in the ground that night was fantastic.

“I certainly hope they do come down and support their team.”

Holland scored a four off the final ball of the match to claim a dramatic one-wicket win over Bangladesh and draw their two-match T20 international series in the Hague.

Ahsan Malik hit four as Holland finished on 131-9 in pursuit of Bangladesh’s 128 all out.