Yorkshire CCC takeover latest: Ottis Gibson focusing on cricket as ex-Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley emerges as favourite

As the club fights to avoid finishing bottom of the County Championship Second Division, an existential battle is taking place off the field as it looks to pay back the £15m owed to the family trust of former chairman Colin Graves and raise several million pounds of working capital.

Reports that Rajasthan Royals were interested in buying Yorkshire for around £25m - interest that is now understood to have cooled - suggested that it could have implications for head coach Gibson and director of cricket Darren Gough, as takeover situations invariably do for those in senior roles.

But Gibson, who is in the second of a three-year contract at the club, is not permitting himself to get diverted from the job in hand as the off-field speculation swirls, with Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group understood to remain favourite to buy Headingley and become the club’s principal backer.

Speaking after his side’s draw against Glamorgan in Cardiff on Wednesday, Gibson said: “If you’ve been involved in sport as long as I’ve been involved in sport, you know that anything can happen in sport, so you do your job to the best of your ability and anything that happens, happens, and that’s where we are with it.

“I don’t even read it, to be honest (the speculation). I work every day on the cricket field and in the nets with the players, and anything that goes on that doesn’t involve the cricket itself, then I leave that to other people.

“Stephen Vaughan, our CEO, is an expert in his field; he’s been a CEO for many years, so I leave all that to him.

“It will get sorted when it gets sorted, that would be my answer; I don’t feel the need to get involved and I just deal with the players and the cricket itself.”

The cricket is proceeding steadily in the County Championship; without the points deduction due to the racism crisis, which has thrown the club into financial turmoil, Yorkshire would still have a chance of winning promotion and can count themselves one of the better teams in Division Two.

They drove the latest match at Sophia Gardens but ultimately were frustrated by the pitch, some stubborn resistance from the hosts and also the limitations of their own bowling attack which has various injuries.

“Frustration is the best way to describe it, and not just for the players – for everybody sitting watching,” said Gibson of the latest draw.

“When we got here and saw we were playing on a used pitch, and the history of the pitch itself, we knew it was going to be a tough four days for us.

“We knew we were going to have to work hard in the second part of the game to get 20 wickets; I don’t think there have been many teams who have got 20 wickets here this year.

“We kept driving the game and tried all sorts with the keeper bowling and everything like that but, in the end, it wasn’t to be.”

Yorkshire are back in action on Tuesday when they face Leicestershire in the Championship at Grace Road.