New Yorkshire heirarchy deserve chance to move forward without fear of further sanctions - Chris Waters

Some people favour points deductions for their handling of the affair and its various nuts and bolts, be that across the County Championship, the 50-Over Cup and/or the T20 Blast.

Others say that the club should be – or should already have been – relegated in the Championship or perhaps slapped with points deductions as well as relegation.

Some would like to see Yorkshire lose their international status; others would like to see them hit harder in the pocket.

Heck, there are probably those who would like to see them go out of business altogether (hello to any readers on the other side of the Pennines, by the way).

Me? I think they have suffered enough and that leniency should prevail from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The governing body last week charged the club and “a number of individuals” while giving an update into its own protracted investigation, with hearings set for September or October.

Why that investigation has been so protracted, incidentally, and has seemingly proceeded at snail’s pace in the space of seven months is a moot point, particularly when so many of the facts and evidence are known, or else relatively easy to probe.

Clearly the ECB is in an unenviable position – albeit one of its own making – and now under an enormous amount of pressure given the way the crisis has unfolded.

Indeed, it is said that some involved in trying to sort out a right royal mess have been off with stress. I’m not surprised.

Without going into the ins-and-outs of the crisis and the claims and counter-claims, I happen to think that Yorkshire have been hit hard enough as it is.

Hammering them further would serve no useful purpose other than to placate the social media mob and perhaps the supporters of Durham, whose club was badly treated by the ECB a few years back, you will recall.

Clearly, one has to “send a message”, as it were, for the way that things developed, but has that message not already been sent in this unprecedented case? I would argue that it has – with knobs on.

Indeed, no one who has lived and worked through this crisis could possibly contend that the punishment has not already been extremely severe. Last year, in fact, it felt to me as if the club was being steadily dismantled brick by brick.

Let’s have a quick recap... Yorkshire lost all their sponsors. Over 20 people resigned or were sacked. The club lost millions of pounds. Its reputation was dragged through the mud and a cloud continues to hang over it that shows no sign of lifting. There is no point pumping yet more bullets into a dead body, so to speak.

Why should the new coaches suffer if there is a points deduction/relegation? Why should the new hierarchy be hit with yet more financial penalties that cannot be afforded? If points deductions or sanctions have to be imposed, then let them be suspended.

Notwithstanding the rights and wrongs of this saga, an incredibly complicated one with multiple characteristics, it’s time to let a club brought to its knees get up off the ground and for the ECB to show clemency and compassion.