YORK Cricket Club could pull out of the Yorkshire Cricket League in 1999 in order to be part of a new England and Wales Cricket Board backed Premier League playing two-day matches at weekends.Eight clubs in the YCL have requisitioned a special general meeting of the League at Headingley on March 11 in a bid to block the experiment of two-day matches being introduced into their programme this season.If the move proves successful, then Yorkshire will request a rule change at the meeting which would allow the clubs in favour of two-day cricket to give notice by March 31 of their intention to resign from the League at the end of the 1998 season in order to join a county-wide Premier League the following year.Under the present regulations, any clubs wanting to resign from the YCL in 1999 should have given notice by September 30 last year, but Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell will point out that the Yorkshire Academy side and some others did not do so because of the agreement to conduct the two-day experiment this season. This involves each club in the YCL playing four two-day matches.If the meeting kicks two-day matches into touch and also agrees to a March 31 deadline for resignations, then the Yorkshire Academy, York, Harrogate, and Scarborough are all likely to quit the Yorkshire League in order to be part of the new Premier League.In a letter to Yorkshire League clubs, Hassell says that the ECB is very supportive of the efforts being made to form a Premier League and that the two-day concept is now part of Board policy as detailed in "Raising the Standard".He fully respected the differing views of member clubs and they must all do what they felt was best for their individual needs, but he believed it would be in the best interests of the game as a whole to allow those clubs which wanted to leave the YCL in 1999 to be allowed to do so.In order for the changes to go through a two-thirds majority is required on each resolution which means that 10 of the 14 clubs must be in favour. The two clubs which could hold the balance of power are Hull and Castleford who have not been party to the requisitioning of the special meeting but may not be wholly in favour of two-day matches, either.So far, 18 clubs around the county have expressed an interest in the Premier League concept and they have been invited by Yorkshire to a meeting at Headingley on February 22 to discuss the matter further.

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