YORKSHIRE take on Northamptonshire this week at Headingley, knowing a draw should secure promotion to Division One of the Vitality County Championship.

The hosts need just 10 points to go up alongside Sussex, and with eight guaranteed for a draw, they would only need a couple of bonus points to seal the deal.

Sussex host Middlesex in this final round of fixtures, with the visitors needing to win that game to have a chance of going up, while hoping for a favour from Northants.

It has been a disastrous few years for Yorkshire, the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal being thrust into the public eye in 2020 and the ramifications still being felt now, relegation from the top-flight in 2022, then a points deduction last year over alleged historic discrimination.

But this Sunday could be a day of celebration, as Yorkshire hope to end their exile from Division One.

The game gets underway this morning, and head coach Ottis Gibson, who is leaving the club at the end of the season, will be hopeful his new ball bowlers Ben Coad and Matt Fisher keep up the red-hot form they have shown in recent weeks.

Coad has been outstanding in the second half of the campaign, and is the joint-top wicket taker in the division, while the outgoing Fisher has come back from injury with a bang.

Gibson said after last week’s win at Glamorgan: “I have been begging for Fish and Coad to be fit together for a period of time.

“To have those two taking the new ball, then you know they will challenge the opposition and take wickets.”

Assuming the game against Northants last all four days, Sunday will mark the final day of cricket action at Headingley this year.

The Northern Diamonds, whose base is also there, were knocked out of the Charlotte Edwards Cup at the group stage, then lost their Rachael Heyhoe Flint trophy semi-final by seven wickets on home soil.

That defeat to Sunrisers, who went on to win the tournament, was the Diamonds’ last game at Headingley.

The women’s structure is changing and Yorkshire will only have a second tier ladies’ team for 2025, and will not become tier one until 2026.

That means many of their better players will join the likes of Durham next year, one of eight counties to have tier one status for 2025.