YORKSHIRE’S director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon has hit out at the ECB for their scheduling of Durham’s most recent fixtures.

The men from Riverside have drawn the shortest of straws, playing on eight days out of the last ten in two different competitions at either end of the country.

Their marathon effort began with a County Championship match against Sussex at Hove last Wednesday, and ended with a Friends Provident Trophy Group C game against Surrey at the Oval yesterday.

In between they had to travel to Bristol for a 50-over match against Gloucestershire on Sunday, back to Sussex for another one-dayer, back up to Headingley to face Yorkshire on Wednesday, and then finally back down to London yesterday.

“I feel great sympathy for Durham,” said Moxon, the former Riverside coach.

“It was bad enough for us, but at least we managed to get a day off in between (the Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Saturday and the Gloucester fixture on Monday).

“It’s just a nonsense what Durham have had to do. What can we do? It’s disappointing because there is a chance of getting to a Lord’s final. In the game that mirrors international cricket, Durham are having to go backwards and forwards to play back-to-back games.

“They had just finished a four-day game, then it was travel, play, travel, play again, travel, play again. That is a tough ask.

“I am not trying to make excuses for anybody, but it is not a good situation to have to ask anybody to do that.”

Meanwhile, Yorkshire pace bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan believes playing first-class cricket in Pakistan over the winter has helped him hit the ground running at Headingley.

The 31 year-old former Test and one-day international has made a promising start to his second year as the county’s overseas player.

He claimed three wickets in the Championship draw at Warwickshire last week, while he has also taken five wickets in four Friends Provident Trophy matches.

“Compared with last year I feel very strong because I have been busy in Pakistan with my cricket,” said Rana, who was recently at the centre of a visa wrangle that threatened to end his twoyear contract with Yorkshire.

The county issued him with an ultimatum of a week to get his working visa issued after getting fed up with having to cut through bundles of red tape to secure their man.

“Yorkshire sent me a letter before it was going to be announced,”

he explained.

“Somebody in the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi read about my situation on the teletext and they told me I would have the visa within three days.”

Rana will return to Hove, where he won two Championship titles in three years as Sussex’s overseas player, for the first time on Monday in a must-win Friends Provident Trophy match for Yorkshire