Four wins in 33? The Yorkshire fans are restless - Chris Waters

Which do you imagine preoccupied members the most? It’s only a guess, but I’d hazard the defeat at Hove.

Members will have their views on the Yorkshire chair’s admission that demutualisation is now firmly on the table (pending their own approval, of course), which would see Yorkshire convert into a private company owned by shareholders and unlock the door to private investment.

Indeed, it was no surprise given references in recent times to “the changing and challenging arena of both UK and world sport” and how “nothing can be ruled out in future”, whenever Graves has previously visited the topic.

A personal view is “what matters it, basically?”, given the way that the game is now and the fact that the status quo has not exactly kept the wolf from the door, has it, and at least if Yorkshire were to be known as Lucknow Super Diamonds somewhere down the track, they could proudly boast the acronym LSD.

More seriously, and again it’s only a guess, most members are perhaps ambivalent to it and maybe even find it overly confusing (they would not be alone). Indeed, given everything that has gone on at that basket case of a place in recent years, they might also see it as the least of their worries.

What one can absolutely guarantee that they care about, however, are passionate about and desperately want to see improve, is results. Consequently, a record of four wins in the last 33 County Championship games dating back to the start of the 2022 season has been enough to turn some of them to hard liquor if perhaps not hallucinogenic drugs.

Opprobrium was certainly high on social media (nothing new there, of course) after the 21-run defeat at Sussex, where Yorkshire messed up a chase of 183 having been 158-6 and seemingly cruising.

The long coach trip home must have felt doubly so for the players and coaches, who would not be human had they not back-and-forthed the puzzle: where do we go from here (strategically, as opposed to geographically). The Yorkshire board must be asking themselves the same question, or at least should be, given that a side that was every major bookmakers’ favourite to win the Division Two title has yet to get on the board in six attempts.

Again, the coaches, especially, would not be human were they not feeling the heat, with Yorkshire also having had England’s Joe Root and Harry Brook available for five of those first six games in a boost which, at the time, seemed even slightly unnecessary.

It is striking, in fact, that Root and Brook both scored two hundreds and two fifties and still Yorkshire have not won, while the top-three of Adam Lyth, Fin Bean and Shan Masood have also recorded at least one three-figure score.

If that suggests the problem is with the ball, then no one who has watched Yorkshire in recent times would ignite flares of protest at the contention that they have struggled to take 20 wickets. But if some of that is down to the pitches, the weather, the heavy roller, injuries, the Kookaburra ball, and, who knows, the presence of the moon in Libra, it is also simplistic to blame things solely on that given the quality of bowlers Yorkshire have fielded. At present, they are down to the bare bones bowling-wise, so are in a difficult place at a key stage in the season, one where there remains hope of recovery – but not for much longer.

It is a truism, of course, that every team faces problems of some sort, and what you are really looking for when a side is struggling, as Yorkshire have been now for two-and-a-half seasons, in truth, is signs of improvement, suggestions that – given a fair wind and a bit of fortune – things will ultimately get better.

Although social media is often a cesspit, it at least provides some barometer of what people are thinking, however crudely and exaggeratedly expressed, and it’s clear that the fans ain’t happy – as they have every right not to be.

Why, they can put up with the odd racism crisis, perhaps, the odd peer of the realm doing his thing and then disappearing into thin air like a magician’s coin, but even those with precious little interest in off-field matters have a patience threshold and, it would seem, the patience has snapped.

The strategy of trying to get through this season and stabilise the club off-the-field after the profligacy of the LKP as opposed to LSD years is understandable, but so are supporters’ on-field concerns.

For everyone’s sake, one can only hope for an upturn in fortunes to render this period a distant memory come September-time when, fingers crossed, Lucknow Super Diamonds will be sitting proudly atop Division Two and the psychedelic promotion party will be in full swing.