YORKSHIRE CCC'S talks with their Headingley landlords over the purchase of the Test match ground have collapsed and the club will continue as tenants at their headquarters.

Although no precise details about the breakdown have been given, I understand that Yorkshire could not come near to the asking price of £15million and that they were only prepared to offer little more than half of that sum.

It was insufficient to tempt Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Club chairman Paul Caddick, but neither party has benefited from the impasse.

Yorkshire are left with a partly modernised cricket ground but without the all-important income streams while Leeds CFAC have not got the extra cash a deal would have brought to spend on the rugby side of the stadium.

Yorkshire still intend to go ahead and advertise for a chief executive. Dunnington-based Costcutter boss Colin Graves has done the job on a voluntary basis since he became a member of the four-man management board which took over running the club a couple of years' ago.

Former Yorkshire off-spinner Geoff Cope is the only paid member of the board and he is expected to retain his post as director of operations. Graves will stay on the board when the new chief executive is appointed.

Now, under an agreement between the two sides, Graves will have to shell out for the cost of the failed negotiations. Caddick put the figure at around £500,000 but Yorkshire have insisted that it is much lower.

Updated: 10:26 Wednesday, April 20, 2005