Club's finances are hit for six

It is a different proposition, however, when they choose to use public money to help a professional sports club – even an organisation as venerable as Yorkshire County Cricket Club – build new facilities as part of a major overhaul of its Headingley Carnegie ground.

This is compounded by today's revelation that Yorkshire is seeking to defer the repayment of 11.5m to Leeds City Council and Leeds Metropolitan University because of the recession.

The fact that Colin Graves, the club's chairman and founder of the Costcutter supermarket chain, is agreeing to underwrite this money offers a safeguard to taxpayers.

These deals could, in the past, have been treated in isolation. However, these are not ordinary times. The financial crisis, and the seriousness of the cuts being imposed by the Government, means that this is no longer possible.

Leeds, like every other council, will not be immune from difficult spending decision. Nor, too, will Leeds Met. Not only is the university having to come to terms with the difficulties facing every higher education institution – but also the legacy of its former vice-chancellor, Simon Lee, who instigated the diversion of tens of millions of pounds into various sporting partnerships, including Yorkshire CCC.

Yet, while the hosting of international cricket matches in Leeds is important to the local economy, and given that Headingley's facilities required a major overhaul to meet the increased expectations of spectators, this arrangement was always going to be a risky proposition in the present climate.

Not only is county cricket, Yorkshire's day-to-day existence, in decline, but the recent expansion of Test-standard facilities in this country – many of which have been built from scratch – means that the club faces even greater competition over the staging of games. Yorkshire cannot rely upon its past reputation. But, given the amount of money that cricket has accrued from TV deals, for example, the club should not be dependent upon cash-strapped public bodies to bankroll its improvements.