Yorkshire and Northern Diamonds to debut kit featuring every local club

By Graham Hardcastle, ECB Reporters Network

It could be a teaser on a Question of Sport. When Yorkshire Vikings take on Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston on Saturday evening, in the Blast Off’s main event, how many clubs will take to the field? The obvious answer would be two. Wrong. It is 634. 

Yorkshire and Birmingham, obviously. But also the 632 affiliated league clubs who have been imprinted onto the Vikings’ new Vitality Blast shirt as part of the county’s initiative to celebrate their quite staggering grassroots structure.

Yorkshire’s eye-catching blue shirt fits in perfectly with their ‘Yorkshire Family’ slogan which you will see regularly on their Twitter feed, for example. It will be debuted against the Bears this coming Saturday when more than 15,000 fans are set to pack out Edgbaston for the Vitality Blast-Off double-header that also features Lancashire Lightning and Derbyshire Falcons.

The club have also done similar with the Northern Diamonds shirt for the Charlotte Edwards Cup, beginning on Friday night against Western Storm at Headingley. 

For the Diamonds’ shirt, 152 affiliated women’s and girls clubs across Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland have all been etched onto an even more striking blue shirt.

“The whole campaign, including the Yorkshire Family hashtag, is all about establishing bonds over the coming years with the clubs around our county,” explained Yorkshire’s creative manager Adrian Mirfakhrai, who came up with the initial shirt idea.

“You hear many people compare us to the whole of Australia with the amount of cricket clubs we have - and it was a massive opportunity for us to get closer to them.

“The design is sort of an abstract of all the pitches coming together, and we overlaid all the affiliated clubs on the shirt. We’ve done the same with the Diamonds shirt as well.

“It was certainly a challenge to fit 632 on the Blast shirt. I spoke to (kit partners) Kukri, and they were a bit shocked at first but on board as soon as we told them what the idea was. 

“They’ve never done anything like this before, but they’ve been great.”

Mirfakhrai got his inspiration for the designs from his beloved Barnsley Football Club.

He said: “They did it a good few years ago with season ticket holders, and I thought it was a really nice idea. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind since then.

“Now was the perfect time to do something similar here.”

Yorkshire launched both shirts late last month at Thongsbridge Cricket Club in Huddersfield, going down the Miry Lane club on a Friday training night. 

Kieran O’Shea, secretary of the Huddersfield League club, said: “It’s a fantastic idea and makes professional cricket accessible.

“Naturally, the kits were on sale, and a lot of the parents were snapping them up, myself included. The first thing that everyone was doing was looking for Thongsbridge on the shirt, ‘Where are we?’.”

That brings us to Jordan Thompson and Katie Levick, stars of Yorkshire and the Northern Diamonds.

“I’ve already found Guiseley and Pudsey St Lawrence. I know exactly where they are,” said all-rounder Thompson. 

“We know how big club cricket is in Yorkshire, and it’s evident all over the place. This kind of thing brings us all together. 

“For clubs to be all over the shirt and seeing their name on it, it’s a big thing for them. They can always point to it, and I’m sure it will create a few more sales as well.”

Leg-spinner Levick, a product of the Upper Haugh club in Rotherham, said: “When we saw our shirt, it was amazing.

“It’s great that every club on there who has a women’s and girls section can feel they’re a part of us because we’re definitely a part of them. We use the phrase ‘Yorkshire Family’, and this shows that’s so true.

“We are a product of these clubs. The only reason any of us play is because of them, and we owe a lot to them. It’s really nice that we’ve got that piece of community on there.

“A lot of my friends play at Saxton, and I’ve found them. St Chad’s, who are just down the road from Headingley, as well. It’s a fantastic bit of kit. I love it.”