Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s general manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton has been speaking about tomorrow’s T20 double header at Headingley and Yorkshire’s men’s start to the season.
Gavin Hamilton has described the prospect of tomorrow’s Vitality Blast double header day at Headingley as “hugely exciting”.
Yorkshire’s general manager of cricket will watch the county’s women’s and men’s senior teams chase victories in back-to-back matches against Leicestershire Foxes, at 11am and then 3pm respectively.
It is the first time the county have fielded their two senior professional sides at the same venue on the same day, and it will be the first of three occasions this summer – and twice at Headingley.
“It’s the first showcase, really, and almost the first opportunity for us to play together under the One Rose banner,” said the former international all-rounder.
“There’s been a big build-up to this. It’s a big day for the club, and it’s hugely exciting.”
Headingley has hosted a number of T20 double headers in recent seasons, but it being the Northern Diamonds and Yorkshire.
This being Yorkshire and Yorkshire has a completely different feel.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Dawid Malan will captain Yorkshire at Headingley tomorrow afternoon.
Earlier this week, women’s stand-in captain Maddie Ward spoke about her side wanting to set the tone for the day by making a winning start to create a platform for the men to build on.
“A win’s a win, and if the girls can get one, it can only be a good thing for the lads,” Hamilton continued.
“There’s nothing worse for anyone who’s been at Headingley than a loss.
“It’s taken to heart, not just by the players but by the crowd as well. We want the crowd to be upbeat, we want the crowd to have experienced that win and just take the momentum into the men’s game.
“It’s going to play a far bigger part than people are probably thinking. People are probably trying to separate the games, but absolutely not. A win in the morning will bring a fantastic feel to the next game and certainly around the ground.”
Hamilton says he is a “huge fan” of the double header concept.
Yorkshire are involved in another at Headingley on Sunday July 13 before Leicestershire host both our sides at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road on Friday July 18.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Maddie Ward will lead Yorkshire’s women out at Headingley tomorrow morning.
Next year, there is likely to be more than three given the women’s side head up to Tier 1, where their T20 group fixtures increase from eight to 14.
“We obviously don’t know the fixture list yet for 2026, but I would say we’ll be looking at four without fail,” said Hamilton.
“It’s all a learning curve and a process-driven year for us to get ahead for next year. Everything we do in the women’s game is building towards next year and even towards 2027 in a bigger discussion (Headingley hosts the women’s Ashes Test Match that summer).”
Yesterday morning, we published a preview of tomorrow’s morning women’s game against the Foxes, which sees Yorkshire bid for their second successive North Group victory. We spoke to seam bowler Jess Woolston.
The women have won seven of nine matches across all competitions, with Hamilton describing their start to 2025 as “absolutely superb”.
As for the men’s game, which starts at 3pm, Hamilton also gave his view on their start to the summer, which has clearly been far more challenging across both the Rothesay County Championship and the Vitality Blast.
The White Rose have only won one match this summer, including three successive defeats in the Blast. The most recent reverse came against the Bears at Edgbaston last night, by six wickets.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Matt Milnes was excellent at Edgbaston last night for three wickets.
Hamilton said: “We’ll go into the T20 stuff in a second, but just touching on the County Championship, Mags (head coach Anthony McGrath) has obviously spoken about that, and I couldn’t agree more.
“We’re playing some good cricket but just not for long enough.
“You go back to Hampshire first game. We lost the first session but probably won not far off every session from then on but still lost.
“We’ve competed in a lot of games but chased it, trying to save games rather than being in a really good position and nailing it.
“Obviously we’re in a pretty difficult position. The momentum’s going the wrong way, and now it boils down to that character building.
“I truly believe in the process that Mags and his coaching staff have got going forward.
“The T20 Blast games, it was similar in that first game against Northamptonshire when we had a great chase but from 9-3. We weren’t ahead of the game at any stage.
Picture by David Rogers/Getty Images. Shan Masood bats for Leicestershire during the early stages of his overseas stint at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road. Masood captained Yorkshire in 2023 and 2024.
“We have only seen the top order fire once, last night, and we haven’t taken wickets consistently through any stage of the innings.
“But T20 is such a momentum game, it really is.
“It only takes three or four players to click into fourth gear and you’re away.
“At the moment, we’ve probably only had two. And you can’t win games with two people performing in each innings.”
The Foxes arrive at Headingley having won three of their four matches so far, beating Durham at Grace Road last night by six runs having posted 193-8.
Yorkshire will face their former captain Shan Masood, who is with Leicestershire for the remainder of 2025. Netherlands seamer Logan van Beek is their other overseas, while they’re captained by batter Louis Kimber.
He hit 51 off 27 balls last night and took two wickets with his part-time off-spin.
