A view from the Pavilion

This is proving to be all too true – but not in the way in which the two institutions had envisaged.

When it was first launched, this unlikely marriage between sports club and university was intended to deliver mutual benefits.

Headingley would be transformed into a venue fit for both 21st century cricket and higher education where students would rub shoulders with champions.

Now, however, the honeymoon period is over.

Today, the partnership is no longer one characterised by shared ambition but rather by large debts and mounting uncertainty.

Leeds Met is owed 3m by the cash-strapped cricket club and despite positive noises coming from both sides, it now emerges the university has no confidence in its partners' ability to pay – and rightly so.

After the club asked to defer its repayments earlier this year, Leeds Met's governors called for a review of the club's finances.

Its findings make grim reading for both sides: the club's repayments cannot be guaranteed.

Eyebrows were raised when Leeds Met invested huge chunks of public money in commercial sports clubs, under its former vice chancellor Simon Lee.

The institution has since made great strides to move on from the turmoil created by his departure.

While some of its controversial decisions – such as becoming the majority owner of Leeds Carnegie rugby club or charging the lowest tuition fees in the country – have been quickly reversed, the legacy of Prof Lee's leadership remains.

The partnership with the cricket club has provided Leeds Met students with a unique place to learn, but at a cost, with the university now exposed to an arguably needless commercial risk.

This at a time when the higher education sector is facing major uncertainty with further cuts expected in Government funding and changes to the way students pay for their tuition.

The pavilion was intended to secure Yorkshire's future as a leading venue for top- class cricket but given the club's mounting debts and Leeds Met's lack of confidence in its partner, it is starting to look like an arrangement which neither side could afford.