Yorkshire entered the new year in a state of turmoil. Chris Waters suggests how they might put their house in order.
THERE have been times this winter when trying to put a positive spin on events at Headingley Carnegie has been a bit like trying to put a positive spin on events in Iraq.
Far better, therefore, just to tell it how it is – for it has been, and continues to be, a dismal period for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
With just two months to go before pre-season training, Yorkshire have no director of cricket; they have no ca
ptain; their star batsman wants to leave; a number of players are fed up; and no one appears to have much of a clue what is going on.
The club are in an almighty pickle – and it is a predicament largely of their own creation.
Following Chris Adams's decision to pull out of a four-year contract to become captain-manager (some say Yorkshire were unlucky; others claim the full story has yet to emerge), the club are already well behind their rivals.
While other counties are busy finalising plans for next summer, Yorkshire are simply striving to reach first base, unable to properly prepare without a captain and coach and busy trying to claim that the whole sorry mess is just "one of those things", an inevitable by-product of reorganisation.
Cast your mind back, for a moment, to this time last year. Yorkshire had just bought the Headingley ground for the first time in their history, a notable achievement for which chairman Colin Graves deserved credit..
The club were looking forward to life in Division One of the County Championship, having won promotion the previous summer, and the mood among the players was one of cautious optimism.
Yet what we are seeing now, amid days so dark that men of the popularity and calibre of Anthony McGrath apparently cannot get away quickly enough, is a build-up of problems that can be traced back not just through the past 12 months, but through the past three
years.
Yorkshire have been on the slippery slope for quite some time as quality players have fled from the clutches of mis-management.
Of course, it is the easiest thing in the world to criticise and attack. There are a number of positive things taking place at Yorkshire – there is an outstanding crop of youngsters, for example, several of whom have achieved recognition in England's age group sides, and stronger links are being developed with ethnic communities. But cricket is the core business and urgently requires attention.
Just as there was a glaring lack of cricketing knowledge among the club's hierarchy four years ago, so it remains. Yorkshire tried to solve the problem by appointing Geoffrey Boycott to their management board – but have not gone far enough.
Boycott spends much of his time living and working overseas, while the rest of the board are made up of business people.
What Yorkshire sorely need is a proper cricket committee: a body to advise the board and make cricketing recommendations.
This committee could comprise former players, officials, even knowledgeable supporters if deemed appropriate. But the important thing is that its members should be watching county matches and liaising with staff, thus ensuring they are best placed to advise on the merits of players/coaches and leaving Boycott to focus on the international arena.
When Yorkshire's chief executive Stewart Regan arrived at the club in March, he openly admitted he was still learning the game.
There was nothing wrong in that: Regan hails from a brewing/footballing background and was primarily appointed for his business acumen.
But apart from having Boycott on the end of a phone line, it seems Yorkshire's cricketing operation is still being run by business people trying to combine both business and cricket. Some sort of crossover is always going to happen, but there needs to be a sharper division between these areas.
Who, for example, was judging David Byas's performance last year? Was it Regan, who is still learning about cricket? Was it Robin Smith, a lawyer? Was it Colin Graves, the head of a supermarket chain? The truth is, they all were.
That is not meant as a direct criticism of them, for what would the average batsman or bowler know of business and finance?
Now Yorkshire are advertising in the national press for a new director of professional cricket and a new director of cricket operations.
But would that have been necessary had they already in a place a cricket committee who knew who they wanted and who was available – and, just as pertinently, had Yorkshire in place a structure that would ensure the very best people wanted to work for them? It is a moot point.
chris.waters@ypn.co.uk
