Yorkshire County Cricket Club made a profit last year of nearly £30,000 com-pared to a surplus the previous year of £111,000, it is revealed in the club's statement of accounts.

And treasurer Peter Townend will warn the annual meeting at Headingley's in-door cricket school on March 3 that for the foreseeable future Yorkshire face accumulating trading losses until the benefits incorporated in the new com-mercial agreement with their landlords, Leeds CFA, are fully realised.

The new 999 year lease which Yorkshire have agreed for Headingley will not be-come effective until after the completion of the £10m first phase of the building programme in 2002.

Yorkshire's expenditure was £32,524 higher than income last year but the £30,000 surplus was made possible through investment income and the profit on realisation of investments.

Cricket expenses totalled £1,959,451, the increase of £225,000 on 1999 being largely due to players' salaries going up by £175,000, but Yorkshire received £190,000 from the ECB by way of compensation for the loss of their England players.

Total income from the England and Wales Cricket Board amounted to £1,588,085, a rise of about £46,000.

Subscription income rose by £43,000 to £513,205 and ground admissions were £17,000 higher at £46,000.

Former Yorkshire and England players John Hampshire and Don Wilson are being put up for honorary life membership at the annual meeting and Ian Chappell, joint secretary of the Yorkshire Cricket Board and chief executive of the Yorkshire Cricket Association, is set to become a vice-president.

* Yorkshire's Benson & Hedges Cup match with Lancashire on May 6 will now be played at Liverpool and not Old Trafford.

Updated: 09:44 Wednesday, February 07, 2001