Yorkshire Cricket Club are poised to announce a lucrative deal, believed to be over three years, with new sponsors.

Full details will be given at a media conference at Headingley tomorrow.

With Yorkshire's pre-season tour of South Africa less than three weeks away, the deal could not have come at a more suitable time.

It is also a relief to club officials who had feared that the continuing uncertainty over whether Yorkshire's future is at Headingley or Wakefield could have had a harmful effect on sponsorship.

Yorkshire have been looking for new sponsors since their nine-year association with Tetley's Bitter finished at the end of last year.

Although the sponsors' name is being kept secret until tomorrow, it is believed to be a Yorkshire-based company which values local traditions.

Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell said today: "Yorkshire and the sponsors are absolutely delighted to be teaming up in a deal which is seen as being of enormous benefit to both parties.

"These are exciting times ahead for Yorkshire and our link with forward looking sponsors means we can approach the millennium with renewed confidence and vigour."

Leeds Methodist Mission was packed yesterday for the funeral service and thanksgiving for the life of Yorkshire's White Rose editor, John Featherstone, who died suddenly, aged 59.

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