Yorkshire turn to supermarket boss

Yorkshire went for their own Lord MacLaurin yesterday when they met a threat of impending bankruptcy by appointing a supermarket boss as their new chief executive. The England and Wales Cricket Board went for the head of Tesco to revive English cricket; Yorkshire have appointed Colin Graves, the 54-year-old chairman and managing director of Costcutter, a chain with 1,200 stores.

Graves starts at 9am today. He is one of four members of a new management board, along with the club president Robin Smith, a lawyer, Geoff Cope, the former England off-spinner and the new cricket chairman, and Brian Bouttell, 58, an accountant from Ilkley.

"I am with Yorkshire as long as it takes to turn things round," said Graves, who still bats occasionally for Dunnington, his York League club. "I've never run a company yet that hasn't made a profit."

The General Committee agreed unanimously to transfer its powers and Smith summarised the stark issue facing Yorkshire's 9,000 members. "Our members must agree by a two-thirds majority to increase the club's borrowing power to £10m on 29 August otherwise we face bankruptcy," he said.

The new board will meet the bankers HSBC and then with Paul Caddick, the owner of the two Leeds rugby clubs and Headingley, who thus owns all the income streams at the ground.

Cope dismissed talk of sacking nine players. "We only have 26 professionals and four of them are committed to England,'' he said.

Keith Moss, the outgoing chairman, remains critical of the way he was ousted, but has plenty of support for the board. Constitutionally the committee could still sack the new board, but to do that with Yorkshire £6m in debt would make bankruptcy inevitable.