Yorkshire Cricket by David Warner

The Battle of the Titans takes place at Headingley on Sunday between Yorkshire and Surrey in the AXA League - and the only generosity of spirit from the home team and their fans will be to wish Alec Stewart all the best on his appointment as England captain.

Once these formalities are out of the way, Yorkshire will be concentrating entirely on beating their old enemy 'The Brownhats' to show that the team of the season is going to emerge from the north of the country rather than the south.

Yorkshire have hardly put a foot wrong so far this campaign but it must be admitted that their opponents have not been among the strongest - until today.

Both Yorkshire and Surrey have made identical starts in the Benson & Hedges Cup with three wins out of three and although Yorkshire are top of the championship table to Surrey's third place and leading them in the AXA League, it is only fair to say that Surrey have been more unfortunate with the weather.

Their opening championship game against Northamptonshire was wrecked by rain while the AXA match between the sides had to be abandoned with Surrey losing their next Sunday match to Warwickshire in an unsatisfactory ten over slog.

In among, however, they have played some sparkling cricket with championship centuries for Alistair Brown and Graham Thorpe and a batch of wickets for Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury.

Yorkshire, though, have had plenty of magic moments themselves and even if they have been amazingly lucky with the weather then it's no more than what they were due.

As things have turned out, it's a good job that Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell's bitter complaint to Lord's that Yorkshire had been given two home championship fixtures to kick off their season went unheeded.

Hassell had already made his views known to the England and Wales Cricket Board by the time of Yorkshire's annual meeting in March when their was a tidal wave of protests.

Although nothing could be done about the fixtures for this season, Hassell promised that he would argue strongly in the corridors of power that the computer should never come up with a similar list again.

How ironic, therefore, that with the rest of the country plagued by wet weather, Yorkshire did not lose so much as one ball in their championship opener against Somerset and that they should then get away lighter than most in the next batch of matches when they entertained Derbyshire.

This weather phenomenon is unlikely to happen again in future mid-Aprils and the fact that Yorkshire got away with it does not make two home championship starters at that time of the year any more acceptable.

Even if dry, it is almost always unpleasantly cool and games so early in the season cannot be expected to bring large numbers of spectators through the gates or attract many sponsors.

Yorkshire began this season with five consecutive home matches - two in the championship, two in the AXA and one in the B&H - and it is blatantly unfair for any county to have to do this.

It is understandable, therefore, that Yorkshire are keeping their fingers tightly crossed that the sun shines on Sunday because not only is the match with Surrey important but the club are making a big effort to show that Sunday cricket is an attractive day out for families.

The Halifax Junior Tykes will be holding their first Open Day, starting at 11.0am, when about 50 juniors will be attending and playing in Kwik Cricket on the outfield, and other youngsters will have the chance to the Junior Tykes Club.

Then there will be plenty of activity going off in the bowling green area where there will be a marquee and public bar, a craft fair with a dozen stalls, special appearances by some of the players for autograph sessions. There is also the promise of a visit from Richard Blakey's benefit mascot, Dickie the Dog, with Ronnie the Rhino also threatening to attend his first cricket match.

Yorkshire are obviously hoping that their efforts to come up with novel ideas for encouraging families and youngsters to attend AXA matches will result in them winning the £5,000 prize from the sponsors for the county which is adjudged to have done the best by a panel comprised of AXA's head of corporate affairs, Nigel Snell, the ECB's marketing director Terry Blake, and cricket journalists.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.