Yorkshire CCC members race to Headingley to save the annual meeting

Already reduced to a bare-bones exercise of rubber-stamping and essential business, without the usual management reports/questions and answers, the meeting was suddenly halted halfway through to allow sufficient members to arrive to constitute a quorum.

Under club rules, 20 members must be in attendance for the proceedings to be considered valid, which, due to the coronavirus crisis and the fact that the event was consequently being live-streamed, was not the case when chairman Robin Smith opened the gathering; normally, there would be several hundred people present.

“At the present count, we have 18 people here who are members of the club, which is two short of a quorum,” announced Smith to the diehard dozen-and-a-half in Headingley’s Emerald Suite as they sat on chairs set out at an appropriate safe distance.

“The rules provide that if, after half-an-hour of the designated start-time for the meeting there is not a quorum present, then I am obliged to adjourn the meeting for seven days which, if no-one else comes, I will do.

“That meeting would take place in a week’s time at 10am, same time and place as this meeting.

“However, that does mean that we’ve now all got to hang around for 25 minutes (to see if anyone else turns up).”

Rather than everyone sitting there twiddling their thumbs, however, or venturing to the nearest sink to wash their hands while striking up a communal rendition of “Happy Birthday”, the “invalid” meeting, so to speak, initially continued.

On a small stage in front of the even smaller audience, Smith handed the microphone to chief executive Mark Arthur, with the words that “you might just want to update the members present where we are with cricket this summer?”

Arthur paused and then quipped: “Thank you for that curveball, Mr Chairman,” before elaborating on the announcement that had come the previous evening from the England and Wales Cricket Board, which stated that the season will not now start until May 28 at the earliest.

He added that the Yorkshire staff are mainly working from home in line with the government guidelines, that the players are training from home until at least the middle of next month, and that the groundstaff are continuing to work as normal – “but not in particularly close proximity”.

Of the players’ fitness levels, Arthur said: “It’s very important that we maintain the core stability that they’ve created over the past four months, because a lot of hard work has gone into place.”

Arthur continued, saying that “the irony, from a selfish point of view for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, is that we do believe that we’ve assembled a team that can compete in all three competitions.

“We were really looking forward to a full season which, of course, will not now happen.”

In conclusion, Arthur reflected: “Goodness knows what position we’d have been in if this virus had hit 12 months ago.

“We are in a relatively strong position (financially) compared to other entities.”

The microphone then moved to director of cricket Martyn Moxon, who clarified that the players will be training at home until at least April 19.

“It’s a challenge to get the strength training that ideally we’d want them to do, but our S&C (strength and conditioning) staff are working hard to try and make sure that the lads have got the equipment they need to at least tick over,” said Moxon.

“The players can still get outside, do a bit of running, cycling, walking or whatever, but the biggest challenge is going to be maintaining their strength levels.

“The situation is clearly very frustrating for everyone, but the most important thing is the health of the population, obviously, and as soon as we can we’ll be back here and preparing for whatever season we have left.”

Smith expressed confidence that “a game-wide solution will emerge” to the ongoing challenges, saying that there’s a “we’re-all-in-this-together” attitude among the counties.

It was then, about 15 minutes into the “invalid” meeting, that the door suddenly flew open and another member – No 19 – walked into the room.

“You’ve just arrived, sir?” said Smith, his eyes suddenly ablaze with relief. “You are a member of the club? Excellent! Welcome! You’ve never been so popular in all your life! I think we’re now at 19, so we just need one more...”

Then, looking straight into the live stream camera, Smith appealed: “If anyone on the stream is listening to this, if they can get in their cars and drive down to Headingley and come to the Emerald Suite, their presence will be greatly valued.

“I’ve got to keep the meeting alive anyway until 10.30, because that’s what the rules provide, so if anyone can get here in 15 minutes that would be very helpful indeed.”

Smith was then told that someone else was indeed on their way and about 10 minutes or so from the ground, at which point the meeting was suspended for 15 minutes.

Once resumed, it whizzed through the various rubber-stamping items faster than you could say “be gone with you, Covid-19”, and so ended one of the strangest – and certainly one of the most surreal – meetings in the club’s history.

As the diehards prepared to take their leave, Smith closed on this uplifting note: “We will come through this crisis, I have not the slightest doubt.

“Cricket will survive, Yorkshire will survive, and we have in this club a management team, volunteers and staff who are of the first quality.“

It was Smith’s last act on a day when he officially stepped down as chairman.

He has been a great servant to Yorkshire and cricket per se.