NEIL Hartley, Yorkshire’s new vice-chairman, is hoping the club’s members and supporters still get the chance to see some four-day cricket this summer, as the England and Wales Cricket Board consider their post-coronavirus plans.

The first nine rounds of the County Championship programme have fallen by the wayside and no professional cricket will be played in England before July 1 at least.

The ECB look set to prioritise the shorter formats and international cricket in any new schedules, but said yesterday they are still keen to play a block of red-ball cricket this summer.

Former Yorkshire all-rounder Hartley has also said he hopes to see the Roses match at Scarborough - which was slated for June 14-17 - played at some point if possible (even if this may now have to be in the form of a friendly fixture).

“The shorter formats, the T20 Blast and the Hundred, are the income generators and are vitally important,” said the 1983 John Player League winner. “But it would be sad not to see any four-day cricket, in whatever form that is.

“It depends how condensed the summer becomes. If we can get three full months at it, we might be able to get half of a Championship season in. Whether the board (ECB) would consider that enough to award a trophy for, I don’t know.

“But a lot of our membership like four-day cricket, and it would be great to give them something as well as the shorter formats.

“I have thought about that Lancashire fixture at Scarborough. To lose that would be very disappointing for everyone - for the club at Scarborough and for all the supporters looking forward to going over there.

“The support over there for the last couple of years in particular has been really, really good. We’ve been getting plus 5,500, and I certainly think that fixture would pull in another couple of thousand.

“Whether it can still be fitted in, who knows. Everything is just speculation at the moment. That’s the problem.”