Yorkshire CCC takeover latest: Still Colin Graves v Mike Ashley as discussions remain ongoing

Depending to whom one speaks, one is the frontrunner one minute, the other the next.

One source close to the discussions yesterday described it as “a 50-50 situation”.

Perhaps best not to rush down the bookies just yet.

Assuming there are no last-minute surprises in the Christmas pudding, amid reports that other investors are still monitoring events, the battle for control seems a two-horse race. What can be said is that negotiations are now at a critical stage.

Yorkshire are “past three o’clock” in the need to get this done.

As revealed last week by The Yorkshire Post, Graves is back in the frame having earlier withdrawn an offer to return as chairman.

His initial bid demanded “total control to run the board, the executive and the club for the benefit of the Yorkshire members”.

The respective parties are understood to be thrashing out details of a new bid with the help of lawyers.

Whether agreement can be found between what Graves wants and what the club wants would appear to be the crux of it.

Graves’ desire for total control and the likelihood that he would want to bring in his own people perhaps make the turkeys voting for Christmas analogy appropriate unless a compromise can be found.

The Ashley deal, meanwhile, remains on the Christmas tree.

Said to be a circa £24m offer that would pay off the £15m owed to the Graves Family Trust, cash owed to HSBC and give the club around £6m to work with, it would involve a sale-and-leaseback arrangement that would see Ashley’s Frasers Group buy the Headingley ground and various commercial rights.

Ashley is understood to be out of the country at present dealing with other matters.

Ultimately, Yorkshire must decide what is best for their members and their creditors, too.

Another pressing situation relates to the whistleblowing hotline set up by the club two years ago at the height of the racism crisis.

The hotline has received over 200 complaints relating to discrimination which have been the subject of an independent investigation led by Mohinderpal Sethi KC.

Although by no means all of the complaints have fallen within the terms of reference, a report is due to be delivered to the Yorkshire board containing findings, conclusions and recommendations arising.

It is thought that the club hopes to publish this report in January/February.

Meanwhile, Craig White, the former Yorkshire and England all-rounder, has been appointed the men’s lead bowling coach at Lancashire.

White, 54, will join forces again with Lancashire’s new head coach Dale Benkenstein, with whom he worked at Hampshire.