Yorkshire Vikings aiming to pillage titles (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Yorkshire Vikings aiming to pillage titles

5:10pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in Sport By Graham Hardcastle

Yorkshire have confirmed themselves as the Vikings in limited-overs cricket ahead of the forthcoming county season.

The White Rose side will play under the new name, unveiled at the Jorvik Centre in York today, for the first time during their pre-season tour of Barbados when they play Hampshire Royals on March 16.

Now the club’s commercial team, in conjunction with Leeds Rugby, will turn their attention to securing a naming rights partner for Headingley, replacing Leeds Metropolitan Carnegie University.

“We are actively looking for prospective partners,” confirmed Yorkshire’s commercial director Andy Dawson.

“It is a major priority of mine to secure someone as quickly as we can. I would have thought we should have someone in place between the Test match and the one-day international this summer.

“We’re looking for a local brand, but one big enough to invest the type of money we’re looking for. We’re doing this in association with Leeds Rugby, and we want it to be a term of seven years plus so we can incorporate the Ashes in 2019 within that.”

As part of the Vikings name change, Yorkshire have agreed a partnership with the Jorvik Centre where both organisations will develop a number of promotional initiatives throughout the summer.

The name was originally supposed to be chosen by the club’s supporters via an online poll, but that was sabotaged by Lancashire supporters and forced a change of heart.

Captain Andrew Gale, Moin Ashraf, Adam Lyth and Ryan Sidebottom launched the name and two new kits today.

“I think the name’s brilliant,” added Gale. “We want to get young faces through the gates at Headingley, and you can just see it now - a Roses Twenty20 match with 20,000 on and all the kids with helmets on and horns. The place will be absolutely buzzing.”