It’s Mike Ashley versus Colin Graves in battle for control of Yorkshire CCC

On the one hand, Ashley’s Frasers Group has tabled a circa £24m offer that would pay off the £15m owed to the Colin Graves Trust, cash owed to HSBC and give the club around £6m – money that would help it trade through next year (when it does not have a Test match) and with some £4m of unbudgeted expense brought about by the racism affair.

On the other, Graves, the former club chair who sits independent of his trust, is believed to have put together another rescue package having pulled out of the running earlier this year.

The ex-chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who turns 76 next month, accused the club in July of acting negligently and against its own best interests when the board rejected his offer to return.

Graves had demanded “total control to run the board, the executive and the club for the benefit of the Yorkshire members” despite, he said, the club approaching him to ask if he wanted to come back as chairman.

Yorkshire said that Graves’ demand would run counter to the fairness and transparency of the process and that at no time did he make “a clearly defined, tangible offer that the board was able to consider formally, unlike other interested parties involved in the refinance process. This point was made to Colin on numerous occasions.”

That seemed to be that in terms of Graves’ efforts to return to a role that he left in 2015 to become ECB chair.

However, he remains firmly in the race as Yorkshire close in on completing a difficult, protracted process hardly assisted by the toxic backstory that underpinned it and the global economic downturn that prevails.

The Yorkshire Post understands that the Frasers offer, which first came to light in May, is done and dusted save for the dotting of the ‘i’s’ and the crossing of the ‘t’s’; in other words, it is ‘ready to go’, pending a final agreement from that company to proceed.

Graves’ deal is also ‘oven ready’.

Although Yorkshire are keen to bring matters to a conclusion before Christmas, it is thought that, depending on which deal prevails, a formal announcement may not be forthcoming until the New Year.

The Frasers deal, which has been negotiated by figures acting for Ashley, is essentially a sale-and-leaseback arrangement that would see the company buy Headingley cricket ground and various commercial rights, which would then give the club the money it needs to continue trading and to plan and move forward with confidence.

Yorkshire have been at pains to promise that the future of cricket at Headingley would not be compromised by such an arrangement and that a guarantee, if you will, would be secured to that effect.

Throughout a difficult and drawn-out process, there has also been interest from other investors, including from those in India andAmerica.

A story with more twists and turns than you could shake a copy of The Yorkshire Post at has even included alleged interest from a Saudi Arabian prince, although any buzz surrounding that possibility has long since stilled.

Both Ashley and Graves are powerful figures with strong supporters and critics.

Ashley, 59, the billionaire former owner of Newcastle United Football Club, was something of an acquired taste, it might be said, with that club’s supporters, and criticised for his lack of spending on players and infrastructure.

He would be much more of a behind-the-scenes presence than Graves, the multi-millionaire founder of the Costcutter supermarket group, who would likely bring seismic change if he regained power, a probability to which he has previously alluded.

Whatever the future holds, there is optimism at least that the club is about to negotiate this testing hurdle, one in which the actions of Lord Kamlesh Patel, the previous chair, piled mayhem on to misery through the sacking of numerous staff without pity or investigation in a disproportionate response to the racism claims, a kneejerk move that cost millions.

In a statement, the club told The Yorkshire Post that it is “very close” to sorting out the refinancing situation and putting the club back on to a much stronger footing.

"The club continues to manage its finances whilst in discussion with more than one party to refinance its debt and move the club forward,” the statement read.

“The Graves Trust, HSBC and the ECB continue to be supportive of the club and continue to back the YCCC management team in their endeavours to resolve the situation.

"We’re very close to sorting something out one way or another.”

That will be music to the ears of all concerned as Yorkshire look to put behind them this tumultuous period in their history.

It has been one characterised by injustice, hysteria, unbelievably bad management and a skewering of priorities away from cricket, the club’s raison d’etre.