Geoffrey Boycott has warned “there will be trouble” if Yorkshire sell their Headingley home to Mike Ashley, and added: “Everybody in Newcastle hates him.”
Ashley owned Newcastle United Football Club until October 2021, when the Magpies were bought by a Saudi-led consortium.
The PA news agency understands the Frasers Group, where Ashley is chief executive, is one of the parties interested in purchasing Headingley and securing naming and sponsorship rights, with Yorkshire working to refinance their debts and obtain sufficient working capital to thrive rather than merely survive.
Former Yorkshire and England batter Boycott, 82, voiced his view on the club’s future direction at a heated extraordinary general meeting at the ground on Thursday morning and urged the club’s board to be transparent with members.
“Every week I pick up a paper and I hear you telling us ‘we’re near a deal’. That’s been going on for months and months,” he said to the club’s chief executive Stephen Vaughan.
“We know nothing more except (what’s in) the newspapers about that guy at Newcastle wanting to buy it, and the club near to selling to him.
“Everybody in Newcastle hates him. I don’t know him, but that doesn’t sound good for Yorkshire cricket if you’re going to sell to him and lease back. I don’t want to be leasing back Headingley, why the hell do I?
“So tell us something, for God’s sake! If you do try to sell and lease back, I’m telling you there will be trouble.”
Vaughan responded: “There are various offers with different connotations, but what I will say, if people genuinely think people have come forward with some sort of unicorn bid to buy the stadium, to keep it as a members’ club, all these things, then they’re kidding themselves.
“We would have taken something like that in a heartbeat. If anybody thinks there was some sort of miracle answer out there, they’re kidding themselves.
“If anybody thinks we aren’t taking certain offers seriously, personalities don’t come into it. The very best thing for our creditors, our members and other stakeholders will be accepted by the board, it’s as simple as that.”
The club have done a deal to defer any repayments of the £14.9million owed to their major creditor, the Graves Trust, until 2025 which they hope will afford them the breathing space to secure the right refinancing deal and then pay that debt off.
The club are also trying to get back on an even keel following the financial and reputational costs of the racism scandal which engulfed them over the last three years.
Vaughan and chair-elect Harry Chathli both gave guarantees that whichever refinancing deal was ultimately accepted, Yorkshire remaining at Headingley in perpetuity would be a “red line”.
Asked in a separate interview with PA after the meeting whether Yorkshire remaining as a member’s club was also a red line, Vaughan said: “We’ve made it extremely clear to everybody that we’ve spoken to that we have no intention of Yorkshire becoming a non member’s club.
“Indeed, with anybody that’s approached us saying that they would like to explore that opportunity, we have gone one step further and said it’s not within our gift.
“We will have to get 50 per cent quorum to vote – which would be going some versus the numbers we’re getting at the moment – and then 75 per cent to vote in favour of Yorkshire becoming a non-member’s club. Other than the fact that would be challenging in the extreme, we have no say on that as a board.”
Chathli is set to become Yorkshire’s new permanent chair in succession to Lord Kamlesh Patel in the coming weeks, with special resolutions passed on Thursday which would allow his appointment outside of an annual general meeting.
Members voted in favour of Chathli’s appointment to the board as an independent non-executive director, and he will officially become chair once Financial Conduct Authority ratification of the appointment is received. That is expected by mid-October.
However, his election to the board was far from unanimous, with 108 of the 389 members who voted by proxy going against the motion to appoint him. A further eight of those 389 abstained.
Pooran's unbeaten 48 in vain as Head, Sharma lead Sunrisers to dazzling 10-wicket win over Super Giants
Sunrisers Hyderabad hammered Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets with more than 10 overs to spare in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head struck an unbeaten 167 from the opening partnership to move SRH third in the points table, with LSG unable to come up with any answers to defend their own haul of 165-4.
Head plundered 89 from 30 balls, including eight fours and eight sixes, while Sharma's 75 from 28 had eight fours and six maximums, in an explosive batting display that saw the duo hit 100 inside the powerplay.
Earlier, Lucknow struggled to get going in their innings, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-12) conceding only singles and shutting down LSG's top order, who scored just 66 in the first 11.2 overs.
Former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran continued his fine build up to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup with an unbeaten 26-ball 48, as he crafted a 99-run fifth-wicket stand with Ayush Badoni, who was also unbeaten on 55.
Pooran struck six fours and a solitary six, while Badoni's 30-ball knock had nine fours, as the two gave Lucknow a chance, but in the end, it was nowhere near enough.
Data Debrief: Sunrisers pounce again in the powerplay
Sunrisers scored 107 runs in the powerplay. In all of T20 cricket, there have only been seven instances of a team scoring 100 runs or more in the powerplay – SRH have the two top scores, with both coming this year.
Pooran and Badoni's 99-run partnership was LSG's highest for the fifth wicket in IPL, surpassing the previous record of 87 between Deepak Hooda and Badoni. However, it proved fruitless.
CPL's Russell urges greater collab between franchise leagues to avoid frequent schedule overlap
Caribbean Premier League (CPL)'s CEO believes scheduling arrangements through collaboration by the various T20 leagues should be routine to avoid the frequent tournament clashes, which forces players to fly from one tournament to another in a short window.
Russell’s suggestion came during an interview with ESPNcricinfo, as he called for regular meetings among franchise leagues owners and administrators to solve cricket's global scheduling crisis. This, as CPL and the Hundred have overlapped in the past, but will avoid a clash this season, following dialogue with England Cricket Board (ECB) earlier this year.
“[The ECB] have a defined window that they have to play in, and it happened that we could move everything out to ensure that we didn't clash [with the Hundred]. It makes absolutely zero sense if you've got [Sunil] Narine and [Andre] Russell having to fly back the day before the final of the Hundred. That's in no one's interests, and certainly not the Hundred's,” Russell declared.
"I hope that [collaboration] continues. It's not rocket science; it's what should happen with all leagues. It's just nonsense that we've got all this overlap when it just needs to be worked through. Scheduling is a challenge, I know, but it can't be that you have two leagues going at each other at the same time. To my mind, it doesn't make any sense,” he added.
While there is a precedent for leagues negotiating to manage potential clashes as shown by the PSL and ILT20, there were a number of leagues that ran simultaneously earlier in the year. Australia's Big Bash and New Zealand's Super Smash finished in mid-January; South Africa's SA20 and the UAE's ILT20 started in January and ran into February; the Bangladesh Premier League started in January and finished in March; and the Pakistan Super League ran from mid-February to mid-March.
With the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for a return next year February, it is expected to further complicate the schedule where franchise leagues are concerned. It is for that reason why the general consensus among players worldwide is for global scheduling windows for franchise leagues and international cricket, to limit overlapping between the two.
While representatives of national governing bodies meet regularly at ICC level - most of whom control their own leagues - there is no specific forum for the owners and administrators of franchise leagues to discuss scheduling.
"It's the logical way to go - because we're all maturing, and we're all getting to a point where we are sustainable. They are generally regarded now as being part of the domestic calendar, wherever they are played,” Russell said.
“I think it is a case of, 'OK, let's have that group of people and say how do you figure out the schedule to the benefit of everyone. I think it's workable. Others might think it's not, but I just think the conversations at least need to take place, just to make sure [there's no clash],” he opined.
Russell used the recent release of Major League Cricket (MLC)'s 2024 fixture list –two months before the tournament starts – as evidence of a shortage of "joined-up thinking" among administrators. MLC is scheduled to begin on July 5 and, as such, is on a six-day overlapping course with the Hundred.
"They've only just come out with their schedule. Why does it take leagues so long to put a schedule together? We have all year to figure it out,” he noted.
That said, Russell also encouraged administrators to find a solution to the perverse incentives that emerged for players earlier this year.
"It can't be right. I saw the other day that where leagues were overlapping, a player who got knocked out before the semi-finals or finals could actually make more money by going to another league. That shouldn't be a thing,” he stated.
Barbados to welcome Oman early for preparation camp ahead of T20 World Cup
As the much-anticipated ICC Men’s T20 World Cup draws closer, Barbados will welcome West Asian team Oman to the island for their pre-tournament camp ahead of the global showpiece to be hosted jointly in the Caribbean and United States.
While in Barbados, Oman’s camp, scheduled for May 14-24, will also include three T20 matches – two against a Barbados Select XI, and one match against University of the West Indies –as they fine tune preparations for the June 1-29 World Cup.
The camp is being organised by former England batsman and West Indies Senior Men’s Selector Roland Butcher, who saw it fit to assist Oman in getting acclimatised to the Eastern Caribbean Island, which will host a number of games throughout the tournament, including the final.
“It is great that the Oman team will be coming out to Barbados early for their pre-tournament camp. They will use the period to get acclimatised to the conditions, as quick as possible. We are delighted to have them in Barbados – this country is the ideal place to start their preparations,” Butcher said.
“We believe the time spent here will be hugely beneficial towards them putting on a good showing in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024,” he added.
Duleep Mendis, the former Sri Lanka captain and Oman’s Head Coach expressed his team’s delight and anticipation ahead of their arrival in Barbados.
“It is one of the cricket locations which we all dream of visiting and we want to make the most of our time as we prepare. We have high ambitions in this tournament, and we want to focus on our plans from the moment we touch down in a country which is known for its cricket culture and heroes,” Mendis shared.
Oman recently named their World Cup squad, which will be led by all-rounder Aqib Ilyas, who takes the reins from Zeeshan Maqsood. This year’s World Cup will mark Oman’s third appearance in the last four editions of the tournament, which underlines their success and consistency in performing at the global level.
Oman enjoyed a dazzling 2023 campaign, as they copped the Gulf Cricket Cup, followed by an unbeaten run in the ICC T20 World Cup Asia qualifiers, which secured their spot in the upcoming tournament. They were also runners-up in this year’s ACC Premier Cup.
The West Asian team, drawn in Group B alongside Australia, England, Scotland, and Namibia, will open their T20 World Cup campaign against the latter, in Barbados, on June 2.
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