The region’s most needy people are being bowled over by the support of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Some of the region’s top sportsmen helped launch The Salvation Army’s Annual Appeal this morning. The Tykes cricketers kindly swapped their bats for collecting tins for a photo shoot at the Yorkshire Cricket Club ground in Headingley, ahead of the big match in the County Championship against Glamorgan.

The Annual Appeal is the Salvation Army’s house to house collection, which will see volunteers out and about in the region from 18th September until 3rd October. The Salvation Army is the largest provider of social welfare in the UK, after the Government, and 92p of every pound collected will help transform the life of someone affected by homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction or loneliness and despair.

Salvation Army Divisional Commander for Yorkshire, Lieutenant Colonel John Hassard commented: "I am very grateful to Yorkshire Cricket Club and the support they are giving to the Annual Appeal. By helping us to launch it, they are showing they really care about the people in the region who need a bit of love and support. The money raised from the Appeal will give a lifeline to all of those who need our help. Every donation really does count, as even for a large organisation like The Salvation Army we can only do our work with the generous backing of the public. Without this we would have to look at scaling back services or even closing centres."