Yorkshire cricketers Ryan Sidebottom, Azeem Rafiq and Andrew Gale, as well as several other first team stars, will line-up for Yorkshire against a Bobby Hassell XI that will feature Reds footballers David Perkins and Luke Steele.
The Twenty20 clash is part of Hassell's testimonial celebrations and will take place at Shaw Lane on September 8. Yorkshire Director of Cricket and lifelong Reds fan Martyn Moxon says several other first team players could also turn out depending on Yorkshire's schedule at the time.
Moxon told the Chronicle: "We're excited about the game and so far we have our captain Andrew Gale, Ryan Sidebottom and Azeem Rafiq down to play. There will be others coming along too but that depends on the schedule.
"I've followed Barnsley all of my life and go to as many games as I can get to each season depending on my work with Yorkshire. I've watched Bobby Hassell play many times and have been delighted at how well he has done for Barnsley over a decade. It's rare these days for a footballer to play for one club for ten years so when I was approached about sending a team, I had no hesitation.
"Bobby's been a tremendous servant to the club and hopefully he'll keep playing for a few seasons yet. He showed last season that he's still a capable Championship performer."
Moxon started his junior career at Monk Bretton before playing for Barnsley in the Yorkshire League. He had several seasons at Shaw Lane before turning professional with Yorkshire. He opened the batting for his county for 16 years and scored a whopping 21,161 first class runs. He also made ten test match appearances for England and scored three fifties.
Hassell's team will include Perkins and Steele – who both played cricket in their younger years – as well as Barnsley Cricket Club's 1st XI skipper Steven Nuttall.
Hassell is hopeful of some star additions but remained tight-lipped about his line-up. "I'm working on getting a few more players in and hopefully we'll have more information on that shortly.
"I was a wicket-keeper/batsman in my school days and at one point I was told I could have trained to become a professional. As I started playing football I had to put my cricket bat into retirement but I've played a couple of games in the last few years and I've done OK.
"It'll be hard playing against Yorkshire but I'm hoping to spring a few surprises with my line-up and give them a nice shock!"
The game starts at 1pm and tickets are £5 for adults and £2 for children.
