YORKSHIRE CCC coach Andrew Gale says it has been “virtually impossible” to prepare for what it is hoped will at least be a curtailed programme of county cricket later this summer.

Yorkshire had been scheduled to open their division one season last Sunday against newly-promoted Gloucestershire in the opening round of the Specsavers County Championship at Emerald Headingley.

England international batsman Dawid Malan was due to debut for the White Rose, while Gloucestershire coach Richard Dawson and players Cheteshwar Pujara and Josh Shaw were all set to face their former county.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has wiped out the first seven rounds of the Championship programme.

During in which time Yorkshire were scheduled to play six games, and there will be no cricket until at least Thursday, May 28.

That date could yet be pushed back further by cricket's governing body.

“We haven’t been able to plan because you don’t know the end game,” said Gale, who was confident of silverware in both red and white-ball cricket this term.

“If they said: ‘Right, you’re going to play half the Championship season and you’ll start on this date’, you can get an idea of what you need to do to meet that date.

“But until we know what’s going to happen and who you are going to play, it’s virtually impossible.

“All that can be done is for the lads to keep themselves physically fit.”

After a three-year transitional period at Headingley, the county’s hierarchy were confident of a return to success after back-to-back Championship titles in 2014 and 2015 and a near miss in the 2016 season.

They brought in Malan from Middlesex and had three overseas players in Keshav Maharaj, Ravi Ashwin and Nicholas Pooran - all of whom have played international cricket - across the Championship and T20 cricket.

“When you look out of the window and see the nice weather we’ve had, it’s particularly frustrating because you wonder what might have been,” said Gale.

“We had prepared really well, added the signings we wanted and were confident of having a good season this year.

“Fingers crossed we can at least get some cricket in later on.”

Gale, who has signed up alongside his wife, Kate, to be an National Health Service (NHS) Responder, was speaking prior to Yorkshire’s decision to furlough their entire playing squad and the majority of their coaching staff last week.

Director of cricket Martyn Moxon and cricket operations manager Cecilia Allen are the only two cricket staff who continue to work.

One member of the squad who was particularly looking forward to the start of Championship cricket was former South Africa international fast bowler Duanne Olivier.

He finished the 2019 season - his first full year in county cricket - as Yorkshire’s leading four-day wicket-taker with 43 scalps.

However, the 27-year-old admits he was hoping for better having retired from international cricket to take up a three-year Kolpak contract.

It was a decision which attracted plenty of attention in February last year, especially as he was hot property in South Africa.

Also speaking before furlough, Olivier said: “Last season wasn’t my best, according to my standards.

"But I learnt a lot.

“It was only the last month or two where I got back to feeling myself - bowling better, anyway.

“But I know where I went wrong.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about adapting to new surroundings and team-mates, and maybe I was a little bit over eager to impress.

“It was a really tough year, but in a way it was a good year because I learnt a lot about myself.

“I’ve been working more on the mental side of the game this winter.

“The social media side of things was quite interesting to deal with after I made the decision, and I got quite a bit of reaction.

“I still get the odd comment here and there, but I’m better at dealing with it now.

"I’m not going to worry as much about what people think.

“It was a massive decision, and everybody has an opinion.

"I respect that.

“But maybe I let what people said get to me more than I should have.

“We are all human at the end of the day.

"My pure focus is on cricket now.

“I have nothing to prove to anyone and nothing to lose.

"But I have so much to gain.”