Gough made his Yorkshire debut 20 years ago in 1989

Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan has played down a Headingley return for former England bowler Darren Gough.

Reports had suggested that 38-year-old Gough could be coaxed out of retirement for Yorkshire's Twenty20 Cup campaign.

But Regan told BBC Radio Leeds: "It's not out of the question because we said that we'd talk to Darren once the season was under way.

"We said we'd see how he was performing, but I would say that at this stage it's a long way off."

Gough retired from the first-class game at the end of last season with a record of 855 wickets in a career spanning two spells at his native Yorkshire and one stint with Essex.

At the time Gough had not ruled out returning to Headingley in the Twenty20 Cup, which begins in late May.

But Regan insisted that nothing had changed since he spoke to Gough after he announced his retirement.

"When Darren left the club we talked to him about the future.

"He said that he was still intending to play cricket for the PCA Masters and was still intending to keep himself in good shape.

I'm sure he's very keen to come back but there's a long way to go Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan

"If he plays well and feels he's still up to Twenty20 cricket then we've said that we'll talk to him at some point before the start of that campaign and nothing's really changed in that respect.

"I'm sure he's very keen to come back but there's a long way to go - there's a lot of ifs, buts and maybes in terms of what we need to do so I wouldn't really like to make a commitment either way at this stage."

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