Yorkshire embrace Viking heritage

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Yorkshire Vikings is the new name of the White Rose county’s limited-overs side, replacing Yorkshire Carnegie.

Yorkshire will first play under the Vikings moniker on their pre-season tour of Barbados, for which they leave on Monday. Their opening game is with Hampshire on Saturday week at Bridgetown’s Kensington Oval.

The county announced the name change at York’s Jorvik Centre, whose main attraction is a reconstruction of the city’s Viking-age streets. Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, Moin Ashraf, Adam Lyth and Ryan Sidebottom were present along with actors dressed as Vikings.

Yorkshire’s commercial director Andy Dawson said: “We wanted a new name that has relevance to the region.

“The Vikings have been ingrained in Yorkshire for over 1,000 years and are woven into the fabric of the county’s history. One of their legacies was establishing the ridings of Yorkshire, which is still apparent in the geographical make-up of the region today.

“With the Vikings brand, we now have a name that is marketable and gives us a hook to promote the club to a wider audience. Our creativity in developing a new look and feel for the team will enable us to implement new revenue streams and attract a younger audience.

Ryan Sidebottom and Moin Ashraf, who were present at the renaming today in York, model the new Yorkshire Vikings kits

“Cricket cannot be viewed simply as a sport. It is a form of entertainment that in modern times operated in a highly competitive environment vying for consumers’ leisure time.

“We hope that people and in particular children will identify with the Yorkshire Vikings and embrace the activity we have planned at Headingley this season.”

As part of the name change, the club has agreed a partnership with the Jorvik Centre, in which both organisations will develop a number of promotional initiatives throughout the season.

“We are entering into a partnership with the Jorvik Centre in York, which is the home of Viking history in this part of the world,” added Dawson.

“We recognise that we need to improve our matchday experience and we have some exciting plans developed around the Viking theme that will bring one-day matches alive at Headingley, especially in the Friends Life t20 competition. This is our opportunity to bring a new audience to sample and experience top-class cricket in a vibrant atmosphere.”

Director of attractions at the Jorvik Group Sarah Maltby said: “We are very excited about this new partnership with Yorkshire County Cricket Club as we see it as our opportunity to tell more people about their Viking heritage and also work with them in the wider Yorkshire community, something that it is extremely important to us as an educational charity.“

Yorkshire Vikings, in conjunction with supplier Gray Nicolls, will wear two kits in limited-overs cricket during 2013. A predominantly yellow shirt with Oxford blue and Cambridge blue detail will be worn for the Friends Life t20 and an Oxford blue shirt with yellow and Cambridge blue detail in the Yorkshire Bank.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire have announced a post-tax loss of £118,000 for 2012 despite a generated turnover of £7.8million. This is an improvement on 2012, which saw income of £5.4m and a deficit of £460k.

A Yorkshire statement explained they would have made a post-tax profit in 2012 were it not for some one-off expenditure, the impact of the Olympics on Tes-match corporate hospitality sales, and lost gate receipts from the unprecedented weather which saw 37% of playable overs lost to rain and the abandonment of a one-day international.

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