YORKSHIRE'S director of cricket David Byas has welcomed the increased number of group matches in the Twenty-20 Cup to be played next summer.

Although the 2005 programme has not yet quite been finalised, it is expected that for the first time Yorkshire will have home and away matches against both Lancashire and Durham.

The two Roses games are almost certain to attract bumper crowds, 12,500 packing into Headingley for this year's encounter which Yorkshire won by eight wickets, thanks to a thrilling unbeaten century from Ian Harvey.

Yorkshire were somewhat unfortunate not to qualify for the quarter-finals, losing two games after making in excess of 200 runs in each of them, but Byas believes that more matches will give teams a better opportunity to pick up their form if they get off to a poor start.

"We struggled to regain our rhythm in four-day cricket last season after three weeks of one-day matches but that is a problem we are determined to address," said Byas.

"Last season was my first involvement in Twenty-20 cricket and I thought it provided terrific entertainment and was very exciting to watch.

"Every game was extremely well supported despite the poor weather and the players certainly loved it.

"I am happy to see the Twenty-20 programme extended and I don't think that there will be too many matches next summer. We don't want to risk drowning the game by too many matches but I don't think that is the case at the moment."

Updated: 10:53 Saturday, October 30, 2004