Yorkshire Vikings left to hit and hope in Vitality T20 Blast closer against Lancashire Lightning

The final takes place at Edgbaston on July 15, and the CDC, at last Tuesday’s hearing, put a three-to-four-week timescale on announcing its verdict.

It would, of course, make a mockery of matters, perpetuating the farce of the crisis per se and be a huge embarrassment to the governing body.

It has in its favour, so to speak, the fact that Yorkshire have never won the competition and, going into their final group game against Lancashire at Old Trafford on Friday, sit one place outside the top-four qualifying positions with, perhaps crucially, an inferior net run-rate, a tie-breaker if sides finish level on points.

For Shan Masood, the Yorkshire captain, there is no point dwelling on what might be – and what might never be.

His sole focus is winning the Roses game and letting everything else take care of itself.

Although Yorkshire are an outside bet to reach the quarter-finals, stranger things have happened at sea and Masood does not need to go too far back into his own history for an inspirational example of how funny things can happen.

At the T20 World Cup last winter, Pakistan were staring down the barrel after losing early on to Zimbabwe, only to recover to reach the final where England beat them by five wickets in Melbourne.

“I’ve been in these situations before,” said Masood. “At the World Cup, nobody gave us a chance after losing to Zimbabwe.

“Every result we wanted in our favour – for example, India beating South Africa, or Bangladesh beating India - that wasn’t happening either.

“It all came down to the last game where even we had given up a bit of hope that surely the South Africans weren’t going to lose to the Dutch, but then it happened, so it gave us a window and we made it to the final.

“These things can happen in tournaments, and the main thing is to get the two points there (at Old Trafford) and, if something happens, it happens; if not, we just have to go back to the drawing board and learn from the mistakes that we’ve made during this campaign.”

Those mistakes have left Yorkshire needing a helping hand.

They have had a curious campaign, losing their first three matches, winning the next six, losing the next three before a no-result in their last game against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

“We are relying on other teams now, which is never a great thing,” added Masood.

“You want your destiny to be in your own hands.

“Our job is to play the Lancashire game like a quarter-final; then, hopefully, other results go our way.”

The 33-year-old continued: “It’s all about this one game for us, and we must enjoy the game. Who knows, it might be our last game of the competition.

“Playing against a good team in their den; we have a lot of motivation to go over there and produce a good performance.

“If we produce a good performance and don’t qualify, then that’s out of our hands.

“What’s in our hands is to give ourselves every chance.”

Matty Revis, the Yorkshire all-rounder, is determined that Yorkshire do precisely that.

Revis has had a solid competition, averaging 21 with the bat and chipping in with nine wickets.

“The last three or four games haven’t gone as planned, but any game against Lancashire is a massive game,” he said.

“All the lads will be going for it, and I don’t see why we can’t go over there and get a win.

“I always enjoy going there and playing in that type of atmosphere.

“It’s what you grow up wanting to do as a kid; everyone wants to play in front of a big crowd.”