Geoffrey Boycott's hopes suffer setback as members air apprehension over his possible election

Boycott is standing against the club’s wishes and needs the backing of members to achieve his goal.

But the organisation that represents them said they had received negative feedback concerning his actions, which have been condemned by such as former England captain Michael Vaughan, who has urged him to withdraw for the good of the club.

Stephen Mann, chairman of the Yorkshire members’ committee, said members had raised a number of concerns to his officials, including:

• The fear that Boycott – despite his protestations to the contrary – might “interfere with the cricket”, thus potentially jeopardising the work of coaches Martyn Moxon and Jason Gillespie, who have led Yorkshire to back-to-back County Championships.

• That the controversy is “all about Boycott”, as opposed to what is in the best interests of Yorkshire, and that the dispute echoes the civil war of the Eighties.

• That Boycott is “out of touch” with the members.

Mann said his committee are “fully behind” Yorkshire chairman Steve Denison, who wrote to members ahead of the crunch annual general meeting on March 26 imploring them not to vote for Boycott as it would be “destabilising” and “not in the best interests of the club”.

Mann added that the committee are “very disappointed” that the controversy has reared its head just as the season is about to start and that the prevailing mood is: “If it’s not broken, why break it?”

Speaking after last night’s members’ committee meeting at Headingley, Mann said: “The position that Steve Denison has taken regarding Boycs’s candidacy was supported by every committee member without exception.

“The committee members are speaking with club members all the time, and the feedback we’ve been getting is that members aren’t in favour of Geoffrey.

“People are saying that they are worried about what might happen on the cricket side if he starts interfering with what Jason and Martyn are doing, and they’re saying that it’s all about one man and deja vu all over again. The general view is that what’s happening isn’t constructive, and that the club is doing well and needs support.”

Boycott, 75, gained the backing of 30 members to stand for election to rejoin the board, which he last served in 2012, as required by club rules.

He labelled Yorkshire’s financial situation “a recipe for disaster”, telling BBC Radio Five Live: “It’s just disappointing, isn’t it? I’m not trying to cause any problems, create any trouble.

“I want to help the club... I’ve been with it 60 years. I think somebody has to speak up for the members.

“The debt has gone from £5million in 2002 to £24million in 12 years. So the businessmen on the board haven’t done a very good job, have they?

“We can’t go on borrowing money - £24million is huge... that’s a recipe for disaster.”

He is adamant that he wants only to “stand up for members” amid his fears that £20m-plus debts are “killing the club”, and he insists that he “loves the club and always will”.

But Mann said: “One of the things we’ve been asked by members is: if he’s so critical of the businessmen on the board, what was he doing when he was on the board?

“Also, in his letter to members (asking them to support him), he talks about members being moved from the East Stand (to the proposed new stand at Headingley behind the bowler’s arm).

“But a lot of members are saying they don’t want to move out of the East Stand, and if you look at the number of people on the East Stand seats at any county match, it’s probably one of the most populated parts of the ground.

“There is a general view that Boycs is out of touch with what’s happening, partly because he’s away with his media commitments, and partly because he spends a lot of time in South Africa.”

Mann also countered Boycott’s claim that membership is falling, saying “it’s actually going up”, and that the committee were “saddened” by the ongoing row.