An update from Yorkshire CCC CEO Sanjay Patel
To all members and supporters,
I’m delighted to be bringing you the first of a new quarterly feature designed to improve communications and ensure you are fully in the picture with the progress and challenges here at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
With 2025 set to be a huge year for the Club, both on and off the field, I’d like to thank you for your ongoing support and encourage you to both get behind us as a Club this year and engage with us in any means you wish to as we look to take the White Rose forward.
Below you will see updates on our four focus areas (cricket, club, EDI and commercial) for which I hope you find useful, and I look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Cricket
It’s been a big winter of change from a cricket perspective with Gavin Hamilton coming in as our new General Manager of Cricket, joined by new Head Coaches Anthony McGrath and Richard Pyrah and new Assistant Coaches John Sadler and Mickey Lewis. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome them and wish them all the best for the next chapter of their careers here at Yorkshire.
With the season now just around the corner, I’ve been delighted to see both the men’s and women’s squads have been working very hard, leaving no stone unturned to set themselves up for the season. There has been a great atmosphere amongst both squads, and with many players having returned from their overseas assignments, there is a lot of optimism ahead of a big summer of cricket.
Both squads have jetted off to Abu Dhabi to add the finishing touches to their pre-season preparations, with the women’s team there now and the men’s team returning to the UK earlier this week.
I’m sure you will join me in wishing each and every one of them the best of luck for the season. I know you will all be looking forward to getting back to Headingley, meeting up with friends and getting behind our teams – and we are looking forward to seeing you again soon!
Club
To say it’s been a busy winter off the field is somewhat of an understatement!
Whilst we have unfortunately found ourselves in a particularly delicate financial position for much of the last few years, I’m delighted that there is light at the end of the tunnel .
The recent process for the sale of shares in the Northern Superchargers, for which we are still working through the various contracts, looks set to be a huge moment for the Club. The funds that will be generated for YCCC will enable us to clear our debts and help set the Club up for long-term and sustained financial success. It is really important the club protects any additional funds from the sales process, and indeed grows it in the years to come. There is a huge opportunity ahead of us to transform how the club operates in the future.
Having consulted with The Sun Group for a long time now, we are also convinced that our partnership with them will open a number of doors for us and enable us to supercharge our high-performance teams, building on the success of our pathways to develop players and teams that challenge for silverware on a regular basis.
The future shape of the Club remains a key topic for us, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the members and supporters that took the time to engage with us in the various consultations before and after Christmas. We are in the process of digesting the insights gained from these sessions and will then look to report back in terms of the potential routes forward. However, it will be no surprise to many of you that the overarching feeling on the back of these sessions was a clear passion for cricket in this county and love for the Club, and we are looking forward to harnessing this to create a Club that everyone can be proud of moving forward.
EDI
Equality, diversity and inclusion has been a key priority for the Club for a number of years now, as we work to ensure that cricket truly is a game for everyone in Yorkshire.
Much work has been completed in recent years to ensure our venues are welcoming for all, our pathways are representative of the diverse talent pool playing in the county, our safeguarding processes enable environments fit for everyone and much more as part of an action plan we published in 2021. Whilst we are delighted with the game-changing progress we have made, we recognise that there is still much to do.
Over the last year we have been working on a new EDI strategy that will enable us to ensure that our key principles in this area are embedded into our culture. This has involved a wide-ranging consultation phase which has enabled us to develop a strategy that we believe will help us to drive the game forward in the county.
You can view an overview of the strategy here and we hope all of our members and supporters will help us to grow the game and create welcoming and enjoyable environments for all in the years to come.
Commercial
Commercial growth is naturally going to be key to ensuring we operate a sustainable and flourishing business in the coming years, and I’m delighted to report that we are making good strides in this space.
With Headingley hosting the opening Test Match between England and India in June, we have been delighted with sales for general admission tickets and, whilst there is still availability for premium tickets and hospitality, are confident the fixture will be a big success. Our teams are currently working through our plans for the game to ensure we are able to offer a fantastic experience for everyone attending. Naturally, the eyes of the world will be on us, so it presents a brilliant opportunity to showcase all that is great about Yorkshire Cricket. I hope many of you are able to join us here for the game.
The growth of our membership numbers since 2023 is also something we are delighted with, welcoming more than 8,000 members in 2024 and that figure looks set to grow significantly again this year. The changes to introduce more flexible options that cater for supporters unable to attend on a more frequent basis are proving popular, with the day-pass options continuing to grow. We are also delighted to see our All-In membership numbers growing into this season, on the back of the men’s teams return to Division One of the County Championship.
We are also seeing the continued growth of our partnership portfolio, with a range of renewing and new partners coming on board, and we look set to reach a record level of revenue for this Club in this space this year. With the changes to the women’s game, we are also introducing new partnership opportunities specific to the team which is proving very popular and we are enthused by the progress we are making in this space.
With a challenging international match allocation for the Club in coming years, particularly in 2027 and 2028, it is of paramount importance that the Club develops its revenue streams outside of both international and domestic cricket. With this in mind, the Club will be hosting two double-headers in the World Championship of Legends tournament in July this year, which I would encourage you to come and enjoy. It will be a great opportunity to see legends like Shahid Afridi, AB de Villliers, Yuvraj Singh and many more. We are also in the process of developing a plan for hosting more non-cricket events at Headingley, starting with a drone show in April and our first ever fireworks display on Wednesday 5 November.
This is a hugely exciting area for us to develop, and a great opportunity, and success in this area will enable us to be financially stable and invest into cricket in the coming years.
I’d like to close by thanking you for your support and wish you a very enjoyable season!
Best wishes
Sanjay Patel
