The Yorkshire County Cricket Club is delighted to release a full fixture list for the second eleven this season, including 12 Championship games and 10 T20s.
Starting on Monday 19th April with a Championship game against Gloucestershire at the Bristol County Ground, the second eleven are set for a full season of competitive action which culminates at Scarborough on Thursday 16th September.
Yorkshire’s Second Eleven Coach Ian Dews said: “I hope we can get out and these lads will get the opportunity to perform. It was very frustrating last year, and obviously we’ve been stuck indoors all winter so it’s great to get outside. We’ve got a full fixture list which is great, providing everything is allowed to go ahead as normal, so it will be really exciting.”
With the impacts of the coronavirus wiping out any form of competitive cricket for the second team and Academy in 2020, Dews and Club’s management had to find new ways to provide opportunity for its younger players.
“With a fairly big squad, we were able to play some intra-squad games which were really successful,” Dews added. “The Academy lads had the chance to pit their wits against the experienced lads and even internationals. We had one game where our young 16-year-old batter was facing David Willey and Duanne Olivier so he will have learnt from that and hopefully we can see the benefits of it this year.”
The 2020 season did see a host of debutants in the White Rose ranks, with a number of the Club’s younger players stepping up to the first team in both the Bob Willis Trophy and Vitality Blast. The experiences that each of them gained will only help with their ongoing development as they now look to push for a place in the first team consistently.
Dews added: “They are all ones to watch and the beauty of what we saw last season was that the players, when given the opportunity, will push for places in the first team.”
With Yorkshire’s second eleven classified as an elite team, regulations will be in place in the same way that they are for the first team. This means that until at least Monday 17th May, games will take place behind closed doors with no spectators in attendance.
