YORKSHIRE players past and present are expected to forge much stronger links together if the seal of approval is given to the formation of the club's first Players' Association.

Around 90 out of 140 ex-players have responded positively to a call to form the association and almost half of them will attend a lunch and meeting at Headingley on Sunday, when the association is expected to be officially launched.

Bob Appleyard, Jimmy Binks, Brian Close, Geoff Cope, John Hampshire, Richard Hutton, Martyn Moxon, Ken Taylor and Don Wilson are among the former Yorkshire and England players who will be present.

And although Geoff Boycott cannot attend, he has said he fully approves of the idea and would be delighted to be a member.

Others who have said they will attend include: Brian Bainbridge, Paul Booth, Mike Bore, David Borrill, Bernard Brooke, Peter Broughton, Dickie Bird, Peter Chadwick, Tony Clarkson, Howard Cooper, Mike Cowan, Andrew Dalton, Stuart Fletcher, Keith Gillhouley, Phil Hart, Neil Hartley, Philip Hodgson, Bill Holdsworth, Peter Ingham, Peter Kippax, Greg Lambert, David Pickles, Bob Platt, Iain Priestley, Alan Ramage, Arthur Robinson, Dennis Schofield, Chris Shaw, Rodney Smith and Chris Wood.

The association is the brainchild of two former players -- left-handed batsman Bryan Stott, and off-spinner Cope, who is the club's director of operations.

Yorkshire is believed to be the only county without a Players' Association and Stott is certain that if one is formed it will be of enormous benefit to the current batch of players on the club's books.

"When I played for Yorkshire between 1952-63 there seemed to be a closer bond between past and present players and we were able to pick up a lot of useful advice from the older ones," said Stott.

"As well as being coached by Arthur Mitchell and Maurice Leyland I can remember talking to the likes of Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe at Bradford Park Avenue and going to sit next to the great Wilfred Rhodes at Scarborough.

"Often in the course of conversation they would mention a fault they had spotted in your play and would be able to advise in a quiet manner on how to put it right. It could be of enormous help and I was always grateful for such friendly assistance from people who really knew the game.

"Unfortunately, the links between past and present players seem to have faded away these days which is a great pity because the club would be much stronger if they existed and I think that a Players' Association would help to bring this about.

"Geoff Cope has agreed that we can use Headingley as our base and that a room will be made available from which members of the Association can watch the cricket.

"There has never been this facility before and the ex-cricketers are very enthusiastic about the idea."

"The qualification for joining the Association is likely to be having played in one first class game, so it doesn't matter whether you have played in one or 100 games you will be made just as welcome."

Director of cricket David Byas has welcomed the idea of a Players' Association and will be attending the inaugural meeting.

Current players Jon Blain, Joe Sayers and Andrew Gale have all promised to attend.

Updated: 11:04 Wednesday, April 06, 2005