THE resignation of Yorkshire’s chief executive, Stewart Regan, is bound to fuel suspicions that all is not well at Headingley, despite Yorkshire’s success on the field. But it is not just the Tykes who are struggling.

Cricket is in a mess, brought about largely by greed. A sport which has its roots, and its essence, in village greens, now requires ultra modern stadia featuring such enormous eyesores as the new £21m Carnegie Pavilion.

The six old-established English Test grounds now have to compete with Emirates Durham, Hampshire’s Rose Bowl and Cardiff. So there are nine grounds for seven Test matches a year and Yorkshire don’t have one next season, as Regan had pointed out when warning of redundancies at Headingley.

Massive re-development is currently taking place at Edgbaston and Old Trafford, while Durham and Hampshire press on with the upgrading of their relatively new grounds in order to ensure they are well placed in the battle to stage Tests.

If a revamped Edgbaston, with its traditional strong support, is consistently preferred for Midlands Tests what does the future hold for Trent Bridge?

Nottinghamshire, who currently have the strongest county team judging from results in all forms of the game, might go bust.

The proliferation of Twenty20 cricket hasn’t helped. It is perceived to bring in money, but has merely provided a classic case of the more you have the more you want.

Now the counties with Test grounds want their own version of the Indian Premier League in order to help recoup some of the vast outlay required in updating their stadia. If the elite have their way there can be little future for the lesser counties such as Derbyshire and the joys of watching county cricket at places like Chesterfield and Cheltenham will disappear.

Even Scarborough could be under threat, although its continued drawing power should be a lesson to all as they centralise activities at increasingly expensive, yet largely soulless, headquarters grounds.

Yorkshire failed to sell the neutral Test at Headingley to their large local Asian community, a factor which is known to have greatly disappointed Regan.

He expressed concerns about the failure of the Pakistan v Australia match to reduce Yorkshire’s debts, and it is significant that the chairman, Colin Graves, is to take on Regan’s duties. He hasn’t admitted it’s a costsaving measure, but that’s how it will be perceived.

Graves has insisted the debts will not impact on the playing side and it’s be to hoped he’s as good as his word because Yorkshire are leading the way in the production of home-grown talent. They are not too hot at Twenty20, but a county with such deep traditions shouldn’t care about that – unless finances dictate otherwise.