YORKSHIRE CCC will now play its home LV= Insurance County Championship match against Lancashire at Emerald Headingley from Sunday 11 July.

The showcase match was due to be hosted at Scarborough CC under lighter lockdown restrictions, but these have instead been extended.

As a result, North Marine Road will not be able to host the number of fans Yorkshire are hoping to see at the Roses clash.

To host a match with 25 per cent occupancy, certain criteria must be met, including demonstrating social distancing at entrances and exits, toilets, and minimising congestion around the venue.

Following extensive guidance and a professional ECB externally-funded investigation, it has been determined that North Marine Road would not totally satisfy this criteria, and would therefore have its capacity reduced to significantly below 2,000.

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur said: “We are hugely disappointed to have to make this decision as we truly believed that this fixture would be unaffected.

“We were anticipating over 6,000 spectators each day for what would be a fantastic advert for county cricket.

“After exploring every possible avenue, we had to ensure that as many Yorkshire Members as possible could attend the match. Staging the match at Scarborough under the current restrictions would leave many of our members disappointed. Therefore, we believe that the fairest and most pragmatic decision was to host the match at a venue that has satisfied safety requirements and can comfortably cater for them.

“We are extremely sorry to those who now have the added complications around accommodation, but we wanted to ensure that as many members could attend as possible.”