Yorkshire ponder cuts

LEEDS: Yorkshire are contemplating cuts after losing out on as much as £750,000 while staging last week’s ‘neutral’ Test between Pakistan and Australia at Headingley.

Although Yorkshire boasts England’s second largest Pakistani population outside of London, the expected support for Pakistan - who won by three wickets after bowling out Australia for just 88 on the first day - failed to materialise.

Instead, only a few thousand were in attendance for each of the four days the match lasted, in a ground holding 18,000, as Pakistan levelled the two-Test series at 1-1. The matches were played in England because of security concerns in Pakistan.

Colin Graves, Yorkshire’s chairman said there would be cuts but promised “no alarmism” and insisted the playing staff would be unaffected.

“We don’t see swinging cuts at all - there is no alarmism here,” he told BBC.“We had a board meeting  while the Test match was going on, anticipating what was going to happen.

Asked whether a daily ticket price of £30 was too expensive, Graves responded, “Yes, we could have reduced the prices - that can be levelled at us - but we think £30 was fair value for a good day’s cricket.”

Meanwhile, Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan was left contemplating some depressing figures, telling the Yorkshire Post, “I would say we’re in the region of £500,000-750,000 short of what we were expecting, which is a big disappointment.” AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2010.