Graves’s extraordinary effort averted financial disaster – Clarke

GILES CLARKE has praised the “extraordinary achievement” of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club board in steering the organisation through troubled waters.

Clarke said they deserved enormous credit for the way they have managed the club in recent years.

The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman said he hoped every Yorkshire cricket lover would recognise the hard work being done by Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves and his team.

And he urged them to support them in any way possible to help ensure Yorkshire continues to prosper.

“If you go back six years or so and look at where Yorkshire were, I think it has been an extraordinary achievement to get them to where they are today,” said Clarke.

“The club didn’t own their own ground, while the Headingley stadium was not as good as it is now.

“Substantial investment was required, negotiations to acquire the ground were successful, and the ground has been developed and improved and now boasts a magnificent new pavilion, pictured. There have been some very brave financial decisions taken, and one would hope that wealthy Yorkshiremen and women who care about the county as well as cricket will support them as much as they can.”

Clarke paid particular tribute to Yorkshire chairman Graves, who has single-handedly kept the club afloat.

Graves, the multi-millionaire chairman of the Costcutter Supermarket Group, has used his personal fortune to help the club through a difficult financial period and also to retain international cricket at Headingley Carnegie.

“Colin Graves’s personal commitment to Yorkshire has been quite extraordinary,” added Clarke.

“It is quite unparalleled – and yet Yorkshire remains a members’ club; I think that is a great tribute to Colin.

“I think it is really important that Yorkshire people get behind Colin and the Yorkshire board and everything they are trying to do at Headingley.

“Yorkshire face a lot of challenges at the moment, but, thanks to Colin, Robin Smith and everyone on the Yorkshire board, they are fighting them.”

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining international cricket in Leeds at a time when more and more venues are vying for a slice of the international pie.

With such as Durham, Glamorgan and Hampshire having entered the rat-race in recent years, Graves has warned that complacency is not an option as Yorkshire seek to further improve the ground.Clarke, however, is confident that Yorkshire and Headingley will continue to flourish.

“I am very confident that Headingley will go from strength to strength,” he added, “just as I am confident that Yorkshire, too, will continue to thrive.

“There are more cricket clubs in Yorkshire than there are in Australia.

“Cricket in Yorkshire is a vital part of cricket in this country; it would be unthinkable if it wasn’t.

“The investments that have been made at Headingley have ensured the ground is now a fabulous ground with great views and a great pavilion.

“The success of cricket in Yorkshire is extremely important to cricket in England.”

Although a West Countryman by birth, Clarke said he had great affection for the White Rose county. As someone who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, he recalls when Yorkshire last had a dominant side.

“I was brought up with that great Yorkshire team and the likes of Fred Trueman,” he recalled.

“All I wanted to do back then was to be able to bowl as fast as Fred Trueman; I’m sure that every other small boy in the late 1950s felt exactly the same.

“I was a huge Fred Trueman fan, and, when I had a box at the Oval, I named it after him.”

Clarke went on: “It has always seemed to me that Yorkshire County Cricket Club embodies a lot of the aspects and values that Yorkshire people hold dear.

“And I’m sure they are finding it very exciting that there are so many good Yorkshire players in the full England side and the Lions side.

“The likes of Tim Bresnan, for example, has come on leaps and bounds in recent times and shown the great strength of the county game.

“The great thing about Tim is how quickly he bowls now – he’s bowling a yard faster than when he first came on the scene – and I shall never forget him in Melbourne last winter when he bowled magnificently to help us retain the Ashes.”