Yorkshire hopeful of Twenty20 expulsion being overturned

Yorkshire were waiting to discover on Monday whether their "manifestly disproportionate" expulsion from the Twenty20 Cup will be overturned.

The county have appealed the England and Wales Cricket Board's decision to throw them out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player.

Yorkshire will present their case at at Taunton in a session chaired by David Gabbitass, and the outcome of the appeal will finally end a week-long saga that has made a mockery of this year's Twenty20 Cup.

It began late last Monday when the quarter-final between Durham and Yorkshire was called off just five minutes before the scheduled start.

The ECB had ordered its postponement after discovering the visitors had fielded an unregistered player, spinner Azeem Rafiq, in their decisive final North Division match at Nottinghamshire on June 27.

An ECB disciplinary commission decided on Thursday that the offence warranted Yorkshire's expulsion from the competition, to the surprise and dismay of the club.

The severity of the punishment appeared to hinge on an accusation they had been advised about problems with Rafiq's registration more than a year ago, something Yorkshire vehemently deny.

Although they accept they are ultimately to blame for the eligibility debacle, they insist they only became aware of the issue three days before the quarter-final at Chester-le-Street.

Their appeal will also argue they gained no competitive advantage by playing 17-year-old Rafiq, who made his first-team debut in the match at Trent Bridge after England captain Michael Vaughan was ordered to rest by the ECB.

Rafiq - who was born in Pakistan and does not hold a British passport - did not take a wicket or bat in the match.

The Tykes are not the only side waiting on the outcome of the appeal, with Durham and Nottinghamshire also affected by what transpires.

If the ECB disciplinary commission's decision is upheld, Notts will travel to Durham for a re-arranged quarter-final after being reinstated in Yorkshire's place.

If the appeal is successful, the Tykes could still be made to replay their final group match against Notts, with the winners advancing to the quarter-finals.

Yorkshire have indicated they would view this as an acceptable punishment for the offence, a precedent for which was set in 2000 when Worcestershire were ordered to replay a cup tie against Gloucestershire for fielding an ineligible player.

Durham, meanwhile, are far from happy at having to play a quarter-final at all. They believe they should have advanced straight to finals day on July 26, in which Middlesex await the winners of the re-arranged last-eight clash.

All the clubs remaining in the competition are desperate to reach the final, with the the winners and runners-up both qualifying for October's inaugural Champions League in which an unprecedented £2.5million is the first prize.