Stick around, Sanjay, says Colin Graves as Yorkshire CCC enters exciting new era

Now chair Graves wants him to sign up for at least three more years with talks taking place between the pair.

“I’m talking to Sanjay to say to him, ‘right, your interim term is up, where do you want to go?’” said Graves.

“I am talking to him to try and get him to stay here for a minimum of three more years.

“That’s where we are with Sanjay. I want him to stay, the board wants him to stay, and that decision is his.

“We’ve got to make sure it’s attractive.”

Patel said he would “love to stay” because there is “a huge, huge opportunity” in his eyes to “get the club to where it needs to be”.

His relationship with Graves is strong - he was appointed head of The Hundred by Graves during their time at the England and Wales Cricket Board, while Patel initially joined the Yorkshire board in February last year when Graves reassumed control of the club.

They are aligned strategically on-and-off the field and keen to build on the funds raised by The Hundred.

Yorkshire have gained some £58m from the sale of the franchises including the Headingley-based Northern Superchargers, cash that gives them an unprecedented opportunity to take the club forward in the coming years.

“I’ve been here a year and I’ve fallen in love with the place,” admitted Patel.

“When I started, I didn't really know what to expect.

“I did it as a kind of favour for Colin in terms of, I was on the board, we were in a tricky position, and he needed somebody to come in and help.

“At the time, I wasn't doing anything, so I thought I could hopefully try and make a difference.”

With Graves, 77, showing no sign of slowing down and as passionate about Yorkshire cricket as he ever was, there is a sense of a club with a new-found stability about it following a tumultuous opening half of the decade.

Patel said it was difficult to watch its downfall from afar as the racism crisis tore it asunder, both on-and-off the field, with the club now back to recognisable good health.

“When this club was in trouble, when I was on the other side at the ECB, it was pretty upsetting to watch,” said Patel.

“I didn't agree with quite a lot of the things that ECB did at the time, and I felt obliged that I could come along and help.

“So, in terms of what the future looks like, we'll decide in the next couple of weeks, but I would love to stay, partly because I think there's a huge, huge opportunity to get the club to where it needs to be, as long as we make the right decisions in the next two, three, four years.

“I think we're at a pivotal stage where we've given ourselves the opportunity and it's now about building on that and making sure that we take advantage of that, with financial sustainability at the top of the list.”

Graves wants Patel to oversee the transformation and spoke of him in glowing fashion.

“As a chief exec, Sanjay has got more cricket nous, more cricket knowledge than any other chief exec in English cricket,” said Graves, with Patel having played club cricket until he was 40 and represented Scotland at national and age-group level.

“He understands cricket, he’s played cricket, he knows cricket. He also knows what the Yorkshire members want.

“What he cannot do is wave a magic wand overnight and put everything right tomorrow morning, that’s impossible, but we want him to stay and help take this club forward.”