Yorkshire County Cricket Club must tighten their belts and cut the size of their playing staff, treasurer Peter Townend said in a blunt message at the club's annual meeting at Headingley.

Townend also apologised for the "abysmal failure" of Yorkshire to conduct retail operations successfully last year and said an investigation had exposed serious deficiencies in the system.

If Yorkshire members thought that talk of last year's Championship win would dominate the meeting they quickly learned otherwise as Townend said that winning the title coincided with a substantial financial loss.

Spiralling cricket expenses had to be reduced by £250,000 this year, the playing staff would have to become smaller and it was inevitable that some of the players would be employed part-time.

"Yorkshire have the largest number of playing staff of the 18 first class counties, with 26 players who enjoy financial returns at the very top of the scale," said Townend.

"The average number is 21 and Lancashire and Nottinghamshire have 19."

It was not true, he added, that Yorkshire recovered all their costs from ECB central contracts and the sooner details of these were made known to them by the ECB the better. County cricket was paying a fearful price for ECB contracts because of the additional staff required.

The club are paying back £350,000 a year in bank interest over the next ten years and unless cricket expenses were severely cut down they would not be able to manage.

All depended on cricket chairman Bob Platt and his committee reining in their costs and the staff being reduced.

Despite Townend's strong words, however, cricket cutbacks might not automatically follow because Platt and his team will argue, as they always have, that cricket is what the club is about and that pruning will have to come from elsewhere.

Townend said that the significant downturn in shop and merchandising income from £32,522 to £460 was a source of great concern and one for which he apologised.

A comprehensive review of procedures and accountability of the retail operation had been carried out at his request by two members of the committee and had highlighted serious deficiencies in the administration of the shop.

Appropriate action had been taken and new practices in the operation of the shop had started this month. The measures would bring satisfactory control over the staff.

Asked if funds and stock were missing, Townend said he could not give further details but he assured everyone that the situation would not be repeated.

The resolution aimed at bringing in a first-past-the-post system of electing the committee instead of the present four-districts system narrowly failed, with 1,048 voting for Philip Akroyd's resolution and 1,150 against.

In his cricket report, Platt said that the fact that Yorkshire used 25 players in the Championship last season and still maintained their consistency was testimony to the efforts of the coaching staff and he praised the efforts of Byas and Darren Lehmann.

Platt said Yorkshire were strongly opposed to the England Cricket Board plan to introduce a 20-overs evening competition which would probably replace the Benson and Hedges Cup.

A show of hands in the hall showed that the vast majority of members were in agreement with the club's stance.

Yorkshire's general committee today hold their own annual meeting at Headingley, with Keith Moss likely to be re-elected club chairman and the sub-committee vice-chairmen remaining unchanged.

Updated: 11:52 Monday, March 25, 2002