Yorkshire CCC AGM: Stephen Vaughan delivers defiant message about club's future amid mounting debts

If this correspondent had a pound for every time he heard that at the Yorkshire AGM last night (spoken in jest, of course), he would be able to retire and spend his life watching Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League.

One exaggerates, but it was good to be back after The Yorkshire Post (along with all media, in fact) were excluded from last year’s meeting - breaking, in our case, decades of unbroken and appreciated attendance.

Alas, the “open and transparent” regime of Lord Kamlesh Patel, the now former chairman, proved to be anything but as AGMs, EGMs and members’ forums were suggestively conducted behind closed doors.

Patel was not present on his last day in office, the 504th of his tenure, due to what were described as “significant personal reasons”.

Yet the fallout from that tenure dominated last night’s meeting and will continue to do for some time, with the club continuing to grapple with the devastating consequences of the racism affair.

One of those consequences concerns what is colloquially known in these parts as “brass” - or, more accurately, a lack of it.

Under Patel, a club already some £15m in debt when he came in has spent an eye-watering £3,535,700 on the crisis in the past two years.

A staggering £1,330,465 of that was on legal costs, while an equally whopping £734,282 has gone on governance reviews and a whistleblowing hotline set up in the wake of the scandal.

As the AGM papers spelled out in stark detail, with Yorkshire struggling to make payments on the £14.9m they owe to the family trusts of Colin Graves, their former chairman, “a cashflow shortfall over and above the club’s existing borrowing facilities will arise towards the end of 2023, and without further funding of circa £3.5m the club will not be able to continue as a going concern”. In other words, matters are pressing.

Addressing some 300 members in the Headingley Long Room, where there have been only long faces in recent times, Stephen Vaughan, the Yorkshire chief executive, dealt with the matter head-on.

After dismissing national newspaper reports that the club is “wrongfully trading”, saying that “some people are rabble-rousing and trying to cause trouble”, Vaughan said: “It is a challenging environment and it will probably get worse before it gets better, but nothing I’ve seen is insurmountable.

"We’ve got refinancing conversations ongoing and are talking to partners; I believe there’s an incredible opportunity here.

“We’re having lots of conversations around strategic partnerships, and there are lots of things taking place.

“The impact of the last couple of years has taken its toll, but I think we’ll come out of this stronger and our ambition is to make Yorkshire famous for cricket again.”

In addition to the refinancing, a key target is to appoint a new chair, with interviews presently taking place.

Tanni Grey-Thompson, the co-chair who will now serve on an interim basis, delivered this update.

“We are currently running an interview process which we expect to conclude in the next week-to-10 days,” she said.

“I did not apply - I felt my skill-set was best served in helping to support the club in the next part of the process.

“Candidates will be assessed on a range of criteria, and it will be a robust and fair process.”

It is easy to forget, such has been the trauma that has engulfed Yorkshire lately, that the club’s core business is actually cricket.

Darren Gough, the managing director of cricket, told members that the cricket side of things is in a much better place than it was 12 months ago, referencing the number of players who have signed new contracts.

He added that Jonny Bairstow, who is on the way back from a broken leg, could be available for two County Championship matches in May in the run-up to the Ashes, although he is not expecting to see England’s Joe Root and Harry Brook, who are taking part in the forthcoming Indian Premier League.

There remains uncertainty surrounding the early-season availability of Shan Masood, the new Yorkshire captain, due to Pakistan commitments, while the club continues to try to find a replacement overseas batsman.

“It’s been a terrific winter,” said Gough. “I’m excited. I can’t wait, the players can’t wait, and we just want to get on playing cricket now.”

The AGM rubber-stamped the appointment of Dr Jane Powell as the club’s new president, who takes over from Geoff Cope, who was elected an honorary life member along with Katherine Sciver-Brunt.

Commenting on Powell’s appointment, Grey-Thompson said: “She had a fantastic playing career for Yorkshire and England and has since gone on to forge a brilliant career as a coach.

“Having our first woman president is a big step forward for the club, and I’m confident that she will be a fantastic ambassador.”