Yorkshire face spending cuts after poor Test crowds

Yorkshire have been left needing to slash their spending after poor crowds for the neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia led to a significant short fall in revenue of up to £750,000 ($1.16 million).

It had been expected that the local Pakistani community would support the match but crowds failed to materialise as only a few thousand watched the action each day at a venue capable of holding 18,000 spectators. This was despite Pakistan's strong performance where they skittled Australia for 88 on the opening day and won the Test by three wickets on the fourth morning.

Although advanced sales for the match were poor it was hoped that walk-up fans on each day would swell the crowds - and Yorkshire's finances - but the Test failed to capture the imagination of the locals.

While Yorkshire have conceded the returns for the game were a major blow to the club they have insisted there won't be any panic measures and that the county's playing budget for coach Martyn Moxon will remain untouched.

"We don't see swingeing cuts at all - there is no alarmism here," Colin Graves, the Yorkshire chairman, told BBC television's Look North programme on Monday. We had a board meeting last Thursday while the Test match was going on, anticipating what was going to happen."

And Graves admitted being surprised by the lack of last-minute support for Pakistan. "I think we expected them to be using credit cards in January, February, March," he said. "Unfortunately, they didn't. But they also didn't turn up on the day - which was a surprising thing, from our point of view."

Tickets for a full day's play cost £30 and, although prices were cut after tea on each day, Graves believes the pricing structure was fair. "Yes, we could have reduced the prices - that can be levelled at us - but we think 30 pounds was fair value for a good day's cricket."

Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, put a figure on the losses the club will face as more than half a million pounds. "The match has cost us several hundred thousand pounds in terms of lost ticket revenue," he told the Yorkshire Post. "I would say we're in the region of 500,000-750,000 pounds short of what we were expecting, which is a big disappointment."