Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale has explained the absence of four key players from last night’s Roses Vitality Blast defeat to Lancashire at Emerald Headingley due to a Coronavirus related incident.
Matthew Fisher, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Josh Poysden and captain David Willey were all late omissions from the six-wicket North Group defeat.
Gale did not want to name the player in question, but he revealed: “The family member had symptoms, but that player has come into contact with the other players outside our cricket bubble.”
Only one of the four players have been tested for Covid-19. Should the test come back negative, they will all be available to play against Durham at Headingley on Wednesday evening.
“We were hoping that one would have their test back, which would have enabled the rest of them to play,” said Gale, of this evening’s fixture.
“They were sat outside the ground until 5.30pm waiting on a text, but unfortunately it didn’t come.
“To have the heart of your team ripped out was always going to make it tough tonight.
“I’m hopeful that a text will come tomorrow morning and they’ll be back in the mix on Wednesday.
“With the guidelines in place, the physios and club doctor said they couldn’t take part in the game unless that one person tested negative. Unfortunately, it didn’t come through.
“I full expect it to be negative, but you just don’t know. You have to be careful.
“I don’t really want to get into who it was. It’s just disappointing we had those four lads out. Add them to Mala (Dawid Malan) being back and we’d have looked a strong outfit.”
Yorkshire slipped from 62-1 after six overs and later 78-1 to 145-9, paving the way for Lancashire to chase down their target. They had a brief wobble at 77-4 before Dane Vilas and Rob Jones saw them home.
Gale, who says his side must win their last three North Group games to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals, added: “I was only made aware of the situation yesterday lunchtime, and I had to sit all the lads down at 4pm today and put two teams in place – ‘This is the team if the text comes and this is the team if it doesn’t’.
“It’s not ideal, but we were always going to give those lads the best chance of playing because they are such big players for us. They are the core of the team, the captain included.
“It was disruptive, I’m not going to lie. It can cause a bit of chaos. But that’s the world we’re living in at the moment.”
Stand-in captain Adam Lyth added: “We were well beaten in all facets of the game.
“I thought we were 40 short with the bat, and I tried everything in the field – bringing men up. But, unfortunately, they outclassed us tonight.
“It wasn’t ideal getting out myself and then losing Dawid a couple of overs later – two experienced players. But we will dust ourselves down and go again on Wednesday.”
