Yorkshire CCC finances latest: Resolution of key off-field issues “progressing”

The Yorkshire interim chair said that matters were moving towards resolution.

“It’s progressing,” she said. “We’re hoping it will be pretty soon. We’re talking to a number of different parties as regards the refinancing, which will be a big part of us being able to move on. Obviously there’s various commercial stuff, so it’s difficult to say more, but it’s progressing.”

Yorkshire are looking to refinance the £15m owed to the family trusts of Colin Graves, their former chair, in addition to raising working capital of around £5m. A £500,000 payment is due to the trusts in October and the rest of the balance in October next year.

The club’s latest accounts warn that without further funding of around £3.5m - roughly the same amount spent on the racism saga in the past two years - Yorkshire “will not be able to continue as a going concern”.

Grey-Thompson has served as interim chair since the departure in March of Lord Kamlesh Patel, with the board announcing in June its desire to appoint Harry Chathli, a lifelong cricket fan and business leader. A two-thirds majority of Yorkshire members is needed to rubber-stamp his appointment, but there is no date yet for the necessary EGM.

“Obviously Harry’s name has been announced,” said Grey-Thompson. “We’re just kind of working through the process of refinancing at the minute and we don’t have a date yet for Harry, but we’ll have it really shortly. The interim role was only meant to be short term.”

Grey-Thompson said she has enjoyed that role as the club looks ahead.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “It’s been really fascinating. To be a part of Yorkshire, a part of the rebuild, I’ve just learnt loads from it. The passion that there is for Yorkshire is just amazing, but it’s about learning, moving on and building once again.”

She added: “It’s also been a massive learning curve because I spend a lot of time talking about governance and safeguarding and all these things, and to actually be in there trying to do it is interesting.

“You see it from all sides, so that’s been good. It’s been a privilege, really hard at times, but I want to go back to looking at the pathways and things like that, and I’d love to be a board member here at Yorkshire for a long time to come.”