ANDREW Gale has a favour to ask of his Yorkshire players - to help him reach a Lord’s final.

The White Rose coach admits it is a regret of his never to have played in a showpiece final at the home of cricket, only watching the 2002 C&G Trophy success over Somerset from the stands as an Academy player.

Gale grew up in the era when Lord’s finals were the feature of the domestic calendar.

Now, with the Royal London One-day Cup final moving to Trent Bridge from next summer as part of the ECB’s shake up of the domestic game, the former county captain is in the last chance saloon.

Yorkshire begin their North Group campaign against Leicestershire at Emerald Headingley tomorrow (11am).

Asked whether this year’s competition takes on extra significance because of a last Lord’s final, Gale said: “It might be different for the younger generation, because of T20 Finals Day. But it does for me, certainly.

“It would be brilliant to get to Lord’s.

“Growing up, a 50-over final at Lord’s was a tradition.

“It is a regret because it’s on the bucket list of any cricketer of my generation. It’s a box I never ticked and would love to.

“If we got there, it would be fantastic because I know how well we’d be supported.

“I remember as a young lad on the Academy going to watch the C&G in 2002.

“Myself and Tim Bresnan and Nick Thornicroft had played for the England Under-19s the day before at Somerset. I was driving us all up to Lord’s.

“Bres had played in the early parts of the comp, so he was gutted not to play.”

All-rounder Bresnan is set to make his first appearance of the summer against the Foxes having recovered from a back injury suffered in late pre-season.

England duo Adil Rashid and David Willey are available for the first three games ahead of the international programme starting on May 3, but Joe Root is not. There is also the potential for Willey’s availability to be extended.

Yorkshire have reached the knockout stages for the last five years, twice reaching the semi-finals.

They were on the wrong end of a sparkling James Vince century as Hampshire beat them in the semi-final at the Ageas Bowl last year and went on to be champions.

“It will be nice to have the England lads available at the start.

“We have a strong squad and options this year.

“We have spoken before about not having options in the spin bowling department or with pace through the middle when we lost Rash and Liam (Plunkett). But that’s changed.

“We have Duanne (Olivier) and Mat Pillans, who both have pace, and Josh Poysden’s leg-spin. He will feature heavily.

“I’m confident we have all bases covered.

“We have a good game plan in 50-over cricket. We just need to get over the last hurdle and get to Lord’s.

“Our challenge has always been to maintain the momentum at the back end of the competition when we’ve lost our England players.

“But it’s encouraging in many ways that the England players will only be available for a few games this year rather than the full group stage and then disappear for the knockouts.

“Last year, we went to Chelmsford and had Karl Carver playing his first game of the season in the quarter-final. That type of thing shouldn’t happen this year.”

Gale is likely to rest and rotate his bowling attack as Yorkshire contend with their first three group games in five days.