Could 'Headingley Heroes' compete in new city-based T20 competition

Denison has reaffirmed the county's stance on being against city names such as Leeds being used to make it less likely that fans from places such as Bradford and York are alienated – but he believes Headingley is a viable option.

"Once Yorkshire went out of the window, and I can understand why that's the case because it needs to be different, we've said a couple of things to the ECB regarding names," said Denison.

"One is 'don't go near Leeds as a name'. That would be ridiculous. The other thing we've suggested is 'why not look at our iconic ground?'

"It's a fabulous brand in its own right and loved by everybody because of things like Botham's Ashes.

"'If you want a name linked to a place, consider Headingley as an option'.

"I'm hoping they might go down that route because it brings the old and the new together. It brings a brand new competition together with the history that Headingley, Old Trafford, Lord's or the Oval has.

"We as a club don't want city names because of the pitfalls that could bring, but we'd be massively in favour of something centred around Headingley.

"It's already a fantastic and established cricket brand."

Denison is a big supporter of the new competition, hoping it will inspire the next generation of cricket supporters and players.

"I'm really excited about kids and families, trying to capture their imagination," he said.

"After the West Indies Test last weekend, I had loads of messages from people saying 'it's my first day at the Test and I loved it'. That's what really excites me about this new competition.

"I grew up on the Western Terrace getting the bus to Headingley and watching my heroes.

"The young kids of today will live to 100. That's the way things are going.

"If they're cricket fans for the next 90 years, we've done our job whether it's through the new T20 competition or Joe Root at the Test."

On the field, for now, Yorkshire's focus is trying to preserve their Division One future in the Specsavers County Championship.

Their struggles in four-day cricket have formed part of a disappointing season for the county.

Denison said: "It's what the coaches have been saying. Transition has just come earlier than we thought and perhaps in one or two different areas to what we thought.

"I think Andrew Gale has been really honest in saying that our top order batting hasn't been where we'd want it to be for a couple of seasons now.

"We've been masking that with some brilliant individual seasons. This year, it's caught up with us a bit.

"We still believe we have a massive amount of talent at the club who are capable of winning the Championship in the near future."

Despite his confidence in the quality of some of the club's players, he accepts changes are inevitable.

He had to do a fair bit of firefighting on Twitter after last month's defeat to Essex at Scarborough, with one particular tweet of his reading 'explanations and actions will follow in due course'.

"There was nothing sinister in that, no such things as major changes," he explained.

"What I was trying to say and remind members of is that conversations about player retention will take place.

"The coaches, Martyn (Moxon) and Galey, are constantly thinking about that. We and they are not afraid of making changes. As there has been in the past, there will be changes moving forwards.

"We do not want to be in the position we are in in the Championship. It's a stressful league with two going down out of eight. We want to be at the top of it and winning it every year.

"If we don't win it, we want to come second or like last year when we sacrificed second to go for the win.

"I was delighted that we brought Tom Kohler-Cadmore in. He's one of our own coming back in a sense, but he's a very talented young batsman.

"I fully expect changes going forward, whether that's ins or outs."