When David Byas was Yorkshire’s director of cricket from 2004-07, he made it quite clear that he preferred his players to go to Yorkshire League clubs when they were not needed by their county, rather than feature in, say, the JCT600 Bradford League.

Cleckheaton’s Andrew Gale moved to Driffield for the 2006 season and stayed there the following year, when he was joined by Richard Pyrah, who had left Bradford League champions Woodlands, and Steve Patterson.

The consensus for the switches were better wickets, bigger grounds and better facilities but the Bradford League had the edge in competitiveness with supposedly inferior wickets and facilites.

Now that Byas has gone and former Bowling Old Lane player Martyn Moxon is back in charge, that barrier has been removed.

Gale, ironically given that he played once for Cleckheaton this year to help them win the JCT600 Bradford League title for the first time in their history, reignited the debate to a degree earlier this month during Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s meet and greet night at Idle Cricket Club when he called Bradford League wickets “a little bit indifferent”.

Eight years on from Byas’ decision, are the County Championship-winning captain’s thoughts about the Bradford League still as relevant?

Rod Heyhoe, who is the league’s grounds and facilties co-ordinator and has been going around the grounds trying to improve standards, reckons they aren’t. He said: “Andrew Gale is back in the Bradford League playing for Cleckheaton, so that says it all.

“There has been improvement year on year in the Bradford League since we introduced performance quality standards (PQS) in 2009, and more clubs are getting marks of five.

“The England and Wales Cricket Board came up and we got an £8,000 grant to do all 25 clubs, with a 24-page report being produced for each club, and most of them have been following the ECB’s guidance.

“Also groundsmen are more aware of what loams and seeds to use but the big-gest improvement has been in the outfields.

"The challenge now is getting the equipment but local golf clubs are often willing to help out, and they may be cheaper than getting a contractor.”