YORKSHIRE closed ranks behind suspended captain Andrew Gale after the England and Wales Cricket Board prevented him from lifting the County Championship trophy at Trent Bridge.

Gale, captain of Yorkshire for the past five years, was suspended for the final two matches of the season after being found guilty of using foul and abusive language during last week’s victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford, having previously been disciplined for dissent earlier in the season.

It denied Gale the opportunity to lead the side in their title-clinching innings and 152-run victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge and ECB officials confirmed he would not be allowed to lift the trophy.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, admitted: “We only found out last night (Thursday). It’s been hard for him, obviously. It’s the moment he’s cherished. So for him not to be able to be out there to collect the trophy is very hard for him to take.

“We’re limited to what we can say. There’s a legal process in place. We’ve got to be very careful, but the bottom line is everybody knows that Andrew Gale is captain of Yorkshire in 2014 when we won the County Championship. Ultimately that’s all that matters."

York-based Jonny Bairstow echoed Moxon’s sentiments, stressing: “I'm delighted for the group of players, but absolutely gutted for Andrew Gale not being able to be on the pitch with us at those final moments because he's been such a crucial part in what's been a fantastic season for Yorkshire.

“It was a real big team performance today and something we really wanted to do for Galey being sat up there. He's a very proud man and for him not to be on the pitch with us was desperately disappointing.

“It's definitely not soured it but it's still disappointing to find out the day after it happened that all of a sudden he's banned.

"It's the fastest thing that |I've ever heard of and we're all disappointed as a club that there wasn't a longer time taken to look into it.”

Moxon, a former graduate of Yorkshire’s youth system himself, ranked Yorkshire’s championship as a bigger career highlight than his ten Tests and eight one-day internationals for England.

"Clearly, playing for England is a fantastic feeling and achievement,” added Moxon.

“But I think the background to this, the hard work that goes into it and everything that's involved in winning a championship - for me at the moment, it feels the best thing for sure.”

But perhaps the proudest man on view was Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves, whose wealth helped to save the club from bankruptcy in 2002 and set them on the route to this year’s title.

Graves was particularly critical of the players in 2011 when they were relegated, claiming: “The players need to take a long, hard look at themselves as far as I'm concerned.”

But three years on from that low point, Graves admitted: “I’m over the moon, to be honest.

"It’s a fantastic achievement when you look at where we were and what we have done over the last 12 years. There have been a lot of low points but today makes it all worthwhile.

“When got relegated to the second division I just couldn’t believe that had happened to us with what we had put in place and who we had in the team. That’s why I said what I said, it should not have happened.

“That was the low point to me. But it just proves what you can do in such a short space of time.

“One or two young ones have come on but it’s virtually the same players and to get from there to where we are now has been brilliant.”