A new era for the Huddersfield ECB Premier League

West Yorkshire cricket now has a second Premier League after it was confirmed the Huddersfield Cricket League has gained ECB accredited status for the 2025 season.

They will be known as the Walker Timber Huddersfield ECB Premier League.

ECB Premier Leagues are the top tier of club cricket in England and Wales and in Yorkshire, there are now five: North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League (NYSD), Bradford Premier League, Yorkshire Premier League North and Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League being the others.

It is a feather in the cap for the region and is another sign of the strength of club cricket.

We will discuss the process of becoming a Premier League with league officials and the Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB) in due course on the website but for now, here are a few of your pressing questions answered.

Why did the Huddersfield Cricket League want to become a Premier League?

I’d imagine it’s a combination of things from joining the best cricket leagues in the country to improving the experience for everyone in the league by reaching a level of excellence on everything from ground facilities to safeguarding and plenty more.

There are also performance related fee payments to Premier Leagues from the ECB based on certain criteria that the Huddersfield Premier League would now be eligible for. (If this still applies for 2025, the document I saw was from 2022).

One observation would be that when the Yorkshire cricket pyramid structure was formed for the 2016 season, there were feeder leagues and a pathway up to Yorkshire’s four Premier Leagues.

The Huddersfield Cricket League were invited to be a feeder league to the Bradford Premier League and rebuffed that idea – which has ultimately paid off.

Their ECB Premier League status means they sit at the same level as the Bradford League – which presumably was their view at the time.

So, they’ve waited as an outlier of sorts (I’ve always thought of them as the defiant Gaulish village from the Asterix comics) but one with a pedigree whose teams such as Hoylandswaine have shown what they can do in regional competitions like the Heavy Woollen Cup.

Does West Yorkshire need two Premier Leagues?

Well, you might ask cricket leagues in other counties where there are none or few that question. But ultimately, it’s the same application process for everyone and the Huddersfield ECB Premier League has met the criteria after several years of hard work behind the scenes.

A point of geography and capacity too. West Yorkshire is an area of 780+ miles with over 2 million people. It has hundreds of cricket clubs. Another Premier League could aid with travel times for clubs.

This is a story of collaboration between their league volunteers, member clubs as well as host of other stakeholders such as ECB, Yorkshire Cricket Board and Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the Bradford Premier League and others who have advised and supported this bid.

What are the key changes the Huddersfield Cricket League had to make?

There is a long list – but to give you a flavour of things, there are standards of good governance (including Clubmark / safeguarding), Equity Diversity and Inclusion, as well as a commitment to junior cricket, to name a few key themes.

Others also include umpiring, facilities and dimensions at grounds.

My understanding is that there are several outstanding matters for some Huddersfield ECB Premier League clubs (from the monthly league minutes) as not everyone yet has three hardball junior teams (up to U15).

Also, there are minimum playing area dimensions defined as a length of at least 97 yards and width of 90 yards. All Premiership and Championship teams have passed this but other teams may not be promoted if the boundary is too small.

How does Premier League status affect overseas players and transfers?

This is an interesting one for the Huddersfield ECB Premier League with clubs not allowed to register a second overseas player for 2025. Reading between the lines – and from what I’ve been told privately – some clubs will need to be more transparent in how players are classified, now that they are in a ECB Premier League.

Understanding the shifting sands that are categories of overseas players, visa requirements and other country-by country nuances requires an impressive amount of patience and paperwork from volunteers – but there are clear categories.

I’m curious as to how Huddersfield’s new status affects both transfer activity (will more players move there?) as well as the calibre of overseas players, plus player moves between the Bradford Premier League and Huddersfield ECB Premier League.

White Rose Trophy: 5 into 4 won’t go

One bit of problematic maths that this news creates is that Yorkshire now has an unequal number of Premier Leagues. Normally, there’s semi-finals for the White Rose Trophy in late September between the winners of the four premier leagues to decide a Yorkshire champion.

This means there will have to be a quarter-final added into the mix for 2025. Leagues finish on Saturday 13 September so there are only two Saturdays left in the month (assuming October is out). What seems likely is a QF on the 20th, semi-final on 27th and then the final on the Sunday.

These are details to be confirmed – as is the venue – though Headingley could be available to host the final after several years where the honour has previously gone to New Farnley and then Castleford.

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So, there you go.

Yorkshire cricket now has another Premier League for 2025 (Lancashire has four if you were wondering) and it’s something to applaud with higher standards across a range of disciplines achieved.

I’ll have more on this story in the coming months – in the meantime, you can check out the league’s excellent website for the latest from them.

Any thoughts?

Drop me a comment below here on the website or have your say over on our Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page.