Nervous wait for Yorkshire

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.

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.