DID you know that Yorkshire has 778 cricket clubs – more than in all of Australia?

I didn’t know that either until I spoke to the Richmond branch of Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) last Friday – and you might well ask what the connection is between that fascinating cricket stat and the work of one of the county’s great charities.

The link is the county’s professional cricket club – the current county champion, of course – and its adoption of Yorkshire Cancer Research as its official charity partner.

At last week’s fundraising lunch at the Holiday Inn Scotch Corner, it was good to hear from YCR’s chief executive Charles Rowett about the work the charity is doing with the county club and those 778 other cricket clubs to spread the word about the battle against cancer in Yorkshire.

Unfortunately, the biggest county in the country has a cancer problem to match: people living here are more likely to get cancer and more likely to die of it than almost any other region.

That’s why the aim of YCR to invest £100m to reduce the annual number of cancer deaths by 2,000 within a decade is so praiseworthy and why I was pleased to speak at the Richmond committee’s lunch.

The branch is 50 years old next year and since its foundation it has raised an amazing £341,000. That’s a great innings and, to continue the cricketing analogy, the branch is still very much “not out”. Past and present members deserve credit and our thanks for such a tremendous effort.

Just before the Scotch Corner lunch, I was just down the road at Catterick to welcome the Chancellor, George Osborne, who had come to see progress on the £380m upgrading of what was once called the Great North Road.

This 12-mile stretch of the A1 has been anything but great in recent times. Prone to congestion at peak times, its multiple accesses meant it had a poor record for serious accidents, which also led to extensive traffic diversions through neighbouring towns and villages.

When complete in Spring 2017, it will mean that the last stretch of non-motorway dual carriageway on the A1/M1 between London and Newcastle has been upgraded.

Just before the Chancellor’s visit, he had launched the National Infrastructure Commission in York. This body will ensure that the billions of pounds the Government is to spend in the North to make sure we have the transport links to help our economy grow will deliver real benefits for people who spend too much time getting to work and companies that lose money because they can’t distribute their products on time.

The A1 upgrade is just the kind of scheme that delivers those benefits. I pressed the Chancellor to continue the investment in the North’s infrastructure and he reassured me this was a critical element of his Northern Powerhouse project.

To that end, I hope the new commission headed by Lord Adonis (who came up to Catterick with the Chancellor) will next consider improvements to the A66 on the northern border of the Richmond constituency. Again, this is a busy but vital route with a poor safety record.

N Contact me at rishi.sunak.mp@parliament.uk, or by post at Unit 1 Omega Business Village, Northallerton DL6 2NJ. Or follow my facebook page at www.facebook.com/rishisunak.