The damage to Yorkshire
Alan Gibson
Had 1 such a counsellor,' said the Emperor Charles V when he heard that Henry VIII had executed Sir Thomas More, 'I had rather have lost my best city.' I felt much the same way when I heard that Michael Crawford had resigned the chair- manship of Yorkshire County Cricket club, and will not be seeking re-election. I had rather have lost my best batsman. Crawford had been on the committee for 30 years, and in the chair in the difficult times since 1980. Nobody could have striven more honourably for peace amid the dogs of war. Norman Yardley, the president, another Mellowing influence, has also declined to stand for the committee again, and so has Robin Feather, another senior and respected member. What the other 26 former members will do is not in every case clear. The pro-Boycott section will certainly stand again, and Boycott has announced that he will be a candidate himself in Wakefield. The elections, which are held on the war system, must be concluded by 3 March, the date of the annual general Meeting. Only then, when the new commit- tee has been installed (after the en bloc resignation of the old one, there is at pre- sent only a small caretaker committee) can Boycott's contract be formally renewed though it surely will be. The loss of Yorkshire's elder statesmen will be felt More severely because their likely successors have shown themselves so unstatesmanlike. On both sides of the argument there has been hysteria and blind mouths, but the Boycott supporters have set the example, and are those who scarce themselves know how to hold a sheep-hook, or a bat. The committee made tactical mistakes, of which the worst, which cost them dearly, was to end Boycott's contract, while still granting him a testimonial for 1984. It would have been wiser to have given him the extra season, as well as the testimonial; or even to have denied him both, and made him an ex gratin payment, of say, £50,000 (after all, the special general meeting set them back Plenty). The possibility of Yorkshire taking a hammering at Headingley while Boycott Walked round the boundary with a collec- ting box was altogether too chilling. It
ought to have been possible to have arrang- ed some compromise, There seems to have been a failure of communication here, for which it is hard to attribute blame amidst the babel of abuse. Yorkshiremen like to think of themselves as strong, silent men. In fact, most of them suffer from that form of inarticulacy which comes from extreme volubility. I have been mocked for saying that your natural Yorkshireman is a natural Latin American, but you could not have had a better demonstration of the point than in recent events.
Crawford and Yardley (neither of whom fits this generalisation), in explaining their departure, both used the phrase that they could see 'no light at the end of the tunnel', and they said it with sadness, as weary railwaymen might when, after carrying lamps in front of an erratic, unlit, creaky, sometimes reversing train through Wood- head, they realise that there is a rockfall ahead and the only thing to do is to get out before the floods come in behind.
It is a long time since I lived in Yorkshire, but I was born there, learned about cricket there, and have always supported them. At one time — even when I was grown up Yorkshire cricket was the passion of my life. I remember writing infuriated letters to P. F. Warner and E. W. Swanton in 1948, when Hutton was dropped from the England side (I felt instinctively, though incorrectly, that these two smooth southerners were the men responsible). It is still the Yorkshire score 1 look at first, and when last season they won even that incon- siderable trophy, the John Player League, I had several rejoicing drinks with Sam, the barman in the Stragglers' Pavilion at Taun- ton, for Sam is also a Yorkshire exile.
So I wish the regime success, whoever they may be. They can at least be sure of holding the present championship position, and any advance will be welcome. Yet the damage done to Yorkshire (and English) cricket, irrespective of results, is bound to be lasting and deep. It has not been a good week's work for the county. If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
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