YORKSHIRE County Cricket Club's officials can expect a grilling on several issues at the club's annual meeting at Headingley on Saturday.

Exactly a year ago, members were led to believe that Yorkshire would soon have bought the cricket ground from their landlords, Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company, but that transaction now seems further away than ever - unless Dunnington-based chief executive Colin Graves is able to reveal any new developments.

Talks between the two parties stalled recently, although Yorkshire strongly denied Leeds CFAC's claims that they had pulled out, but they have now got going again and it may be that Yorkshire will now try to buy the ground and its income streams bit by bit rather than all in one go.

On the playing side, chairman Robin Smith voiced disapproval at the number of Kolpak players flooding into county cricket but only last week Yorkshire signed one themselves in South African fast bowler, Deon Kruis.

And the confidence expressed that Yorkshire would gain promotion in both the Frizzell Championship and the totesport League also proved unfounded because they failed to clamber out of Division Two in either competition.

All of which shows how difficult it is to predict the future with any degree of certainty but Yorkshire will be trying hard to convince members that the team, at least, will turn the corner this season.

Members are likely to hear from director of cricket David Byas that Yorkshire had little option but to sign a Kolpak player if they were to make a stronger bid for promotion.

Before the start of last season it did not seem as if one would be necessary but long-term injuries to Chris Silverwood and Craig White left them desperately short of experienced bowlers and their numbers were thinned even further at the end of the summer when Steve Kirby announced he wanted to quit the club.

With batsman Phil Jaques and all-rounder Ian Harvey already installed as their two overseas players for 2005, Yorkshire were unable to sign a star bowler but Byas believes he has plugged some gaps with the arrival of left-armer David Lucas, from Nottinghamshire, and Kruis, who flies in from South Africa at the beginning of next month.

Yorkshire will lose a familiar face from its members' committee tomorrow when Sid Fielden retires after first being elected to the old general committee as a Doncaster representative in 1981.

With Simon Parsons resigning from the members' committee because he feels it has got no real teeth, four candidates are fighting for the two vacancies which have arisen. They are Robert Hilliam, from Scarborough, Rob Lolley, from Leeds, Stephen Mann, from Ilkley, and David Tunbridge, from Dronfield.

Next boss David Jones has been nominated to serve another year as president and members will also be asked to elect former committee member, Philip Akroyd, from Mirfield, as a club vice-president.

Akroyd served for 17 years from 1984 on the general committee.

Updated: 09:49 Friday, March 11, 2005