YORKSHIRE say the return of county cricket to Bradford and Sheffield from 2020 onwards remains “absolutely high on our agenda”.

They were the words used by chairman Steve Denison at last weekend’s annual general meeting as the county look at ways of juggling their match schedule with regards to the introduction of the ECB’s new T20 competition.

Emerald Headingley has been selected as one of the eight host venues between 2020 and 2024, meaning the need for more options to host regular county cricket.

Earlier this year, chief executive Mark Arthur said he hoped that the Park Avenue venue would be ready to host matches from 2021 and Abbeydale Park in Sheffield from 2020, adding to the current outground option at Scarborough.

The topic of outground development was raised by a Sheffield-based member, but an update on Bradford was also given.

“We voted in favour of the new T20 competition,” said Denison.

“We think it is the right thing for the game to be experimenting with right now. But that doesn't mean it will take precedent over Championship cricket in our view.

"It did underpin, however, a massive transformational TV deal for the ECB. That money will come into the game. It will come into the counties and also the recreational game.

“And we’re working hard with the ECB to make sure that gets spent properly.

“Emerald Headingley is going to be one of the host venues.

“One of the nice spin-off benefits, and we’ve again been pushing this very hard, is that once that competition is up and running, we will need more capacity to enable us to play matches.

“We are talking to the ECB about our three grounds that we want to keep investing in and bring up to first-class level.

“Scarborough, we’re already there but it needs more investment. Sheffield and Bradford are absolutely high on our agenda in terms of bringing first-class cricket back to those venues.

“We’re really excited about that, and the new T20 tournament is a catalyst for us to talk to the ECB about them.”

Chief executive Arthur said: “I’ve been very keen to take cricket back to Sheffield. It’s an area of the county that we probably haven't paid as much attention to as we should.

“However, the ball is very much in the court of Sheffield Collegiate and the ground.

“They have to improve their changing facilities, and they have got an outlined plan to do that. The pitches are not good enough, and that also has to be addressed.

“If those two things are addressed, there’s no reason why they shouldn't be hosting List A or Championship cricket some time in the future.

“They are trying to sell some land to support this, and it depends on what support they get and how badly Sheffield wants county cricket on their patch.

“There is a commitment from the county club to spread cricket throughout the county, much as we used to 20-odd years ago.

“We’re very keen because there’s only so much cricket we can play here (at Headingley).

“If we take too much cricket to Scarborough, it will kill the golden goose.

“Bradford won’t be ready for quite some time.

“We have finished stage one there, but we will have to put in some serious funds, and that money is not available from the ECB until the year 2020 onwards.”