Troubled Yorkshire County Cricket Club looks overseas for investment

Struggling Yorkshire County Cricket Club could soon be refinanced with cash from Saudi Arabia, according to media reports this week.

Darren Gough, who is Yorkshire’s managing director of cricket, and Stephen Vaughan, the club’s chief executive, are understood to have travelled to Dubai for discussions to resolve the club’s financial difficulties.

But so far they have been tight lipped on any progress, with Vaughan saying: “While we are not able to comment on any of the individual parties involved, we are involved in numerous positive and serious conversations around refinancing of the club and continue to explore all the avenues available to us.”

Reports in the Daily Mail state that Vaughan met Saudi Arabian prince and government official, Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud, to find alternative financing for the club.

Prince Badr has offered to take on debt owed to Colin Graves, the club’s former chairman, while charging Yorkshire less than the 4% interest that the Graves Trust is charging. There is potential for additional investment in future.

An Indian investment group is also understood to be involved in negotiations with Yorkshire who owe the Graves Family Trust £14.9m, with a payment of £500,000 due in October and the rest a year later.

Yorkshire is facing a £3.5m shortfall this year and risks running out of money to pay its staff before the end of the season.

Graves, who was also chairman of the ECB for five years, was the Yorkshire chair between 2012 and 2015. He saved the club from financial meltdown in 2002, when Headingley was feared to be just 48 hours from ruin.