A name for Yorkshire

Some years ago, the marketing gurus at the ECB decided that calling counties after the counties from which they come simply wasn't enough. A contrived nickname must be added, they said, and so it came to pass.

This isn't anything really new, but the way it's been applied to cricket hasn't really worked, as evidenced by the number of clubs that have changed that nickname, some more than once. There's no heritage or history behind these names and, as such, they're failing to stick.

Rugby league went through this process some years ago, and that's largely worked. In Australia, old clubs were already known by the names now associated with them; Eastern Suburbs were always the Roosters, Souths the Rabbitohs and so on. Newer clubs began with a nickname which have been stuck with and have become commonly used in association with those clubs. Some of Britain's RL clubs had less successful experiments. Halifax dropped the unloved and unlovely 'Blue Sox' moniker to revert to 'Halifax' while St Helens, rightly, didn't feel the need to add the word 'Saints' to the end of the club's name. Others have become second nature - even Warrington's 'Wolves' which makes those, like this writer, who still call them 'the Wire' seem like the dinosaurs they probably are. But even ones that haven't really caught on - Wigan will never really be the Warriors - have been stuck to.

Yorkshire are about to try and find a fourth such nickname and have opened it up to the fanbase. Initially 'Phoenix', which wouldn't have been too bad were it not for the garish orange outfits, they were subsequently 'Tykes' and latterly 'Carnegie', a product of a tie-up with Leeds Met university, an agreement which has come to an end.

The example of Halifax RLFC is a good one here. They ended up with 'Blue Sox' as an unhappy compromise after the fans were consulted and came up with 'Bombers' which was deemed insensitive and inappropriate. Nobody wanted Blue Sox, but nobody was vehemently against it and it was ushered in with derision and a footnote in history that placed it alongside Swiss football club Neuchatel Xamax as the only two professional sports sides with two Xs in their name. Neither name now exist.

Yorkshire are actively seeking suggestions. Given that three previous artificial addenda have failed to grip the imagination of the Yorkshire public and they want something that fans will be happy to shout from the terraces, there is only one option. Anyone who has been to a Yorkshire game will know that there's only one thing that is ever shouted and, fortunately, that also ties in to the one name that will please everybody. Moreover, it's an opportunity to show that cricket doesn't need these constructs and that clubs are perfectly able to market themselves without having such a contrivance imposed on them.

Yorkshire's new name must be 'Yorkshire'.