YP Comment: Geoff Boycott's battles '“ Yorkshire will always be greater than one player

ONLY Geoffrey Boycott and Yorkshire County Cricket Club could have such a love-hate relationship that continues to polarise opinion 30 years after the opening batsmen, one of the most single-minded players in the history of his sport, played his final innings.

The latest instalment in this decades-long drama is the desire of the Test Match Special pundit to become a board member of the club – he is concerned about the health of the white rose county’s finances – while the powers-that-be would prefer Boycott to be an international ambassador.

As Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan used Twitter to implore his TMS colleague to “back down”, and YCCC members become dragged into the minutiae of the club’s constitution ahead of a potentially tempestuous AGM that will stir memories of previous battles, it is ironic that a civil war has erupted in the aftermath of two successive County Championship wins – still the holy grail of cricket.

Given this, many will be stumped by recent events. After all, these successes were supposed to provide firm foundations for the future, not least Yorkshire’s dynamic youth programme, and this should be of greater importance than one ex-player’s desire, however well-intended, for one last hurrah at Headingley.