Yorkshire are hoping to begin a phased return to training for the club’s playing staff next week as the prospect of county cricket this summer moves closer.
It is planned that the finer details of a shortened county schedule will become clearer this week, with White Rose director of cricket Martyn Moxon “hopeful” of Plan A – four-day cricket and T20.
Assuming there are no further complications with Coronavirus, domestic cricket would be played through August and September and possibly into October.
The England and Wales Cricket Board are working towards a regionalised four-day competition added to a Vitality Blast.
“We can’t be 100 percent sure because things can change very quickly with the virus, etc, but there’s a real desire to have a couple of months of cricket,” said Moxon.
“I’m hopeful that Plan A can happen, but we need hotels to be open and things to work that are out of our control, I suppose. But signs are good that they will be.
“I’d like to think we will have Plan A available to us. But, whatever happens, as long as we can play some cricket, that’s the main priority.”
It has already been reported that further options include a T20 Blast alone or 50-over cricket and T20 cricket.
“Once we get the green light, the plan is to get the lads back to training from the week commencing June 29 – some time that week,” said Moxon.
Last week was a particularly busy one for Moxon, who led player appraisals, discussing things such as new contracts.
With Tim Bresnan opting to depart Emerald Headingley early, the county now have 12 players out of contract at the end of this summer.
Both for the players themselves – the majority are young lads trying to make their way in the game – and for the club, Moxon describes things as “difficult”.
“It’s a particularly difficult time for lads who are out of contract,” he said.
“Making decisions on them is also incredibly difficult because we’ve got no evidence to go on from this season as to how they’ve performed. You are going on what they’ve done already.
“In our case, a lot of ours are young lads who haven’t played very much.
“Also a lot of these lads might not play much cricket this summer because we’re talking about the first team.
“We’ve no idea how much second-team or any other form of cricket will be played. At the minute, the priority is getting first-team cricket going.”
The contract situation is complicated by the timing of a potential summer restart.