Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is determined to bring better times back to Yorkshire CCC

The Baroness and newly-appointed co-chair tells The Yorkshire Post: “I think it’s something that anyone who’s connected (to Yorkshire) and in position, so to speak, would give consideration to. Absolutely.

“At the minute, there’s lots going on, and I think for me right now it’s about doing the best job I can as a non-exec.

“We’ve come so far, but there’s loads still to do, so it’s not a ‘yes’ and it’s not a ‘no’. There would be lots of things to consider.

“Our duty as non-execs is to do our absolute best for Yorkshire, so that removes it from an emotional and personal decision.

“We are embarking on an open, public and robust process and are casting the net wide. As we work through that process, that’s the point when I’d really think, ‘Do I? Don’t I? What am I best at doing?’

“We have to get the best person as chair to put Yorkshire in a good place not just for the next couple of years, but the next 10-15 years.

“Yes, there are things that are urgent right now in terms of finance, the refinancing, whatever the CDC (Cricket Discipline Commission) comes up with (in terms of the forthcoming hearings into racism at the club), but it’s also looking at those next 10-15 years.

“The way I work, I tend to work in steps, so there’s other stuff as a board we need to do before I kind of think about ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

Grey-Thompson, 53, would be a logical choice from the current board, which she joined as one of six non-executive directors in May.

As one of Britain’s greatest Paralympic athletes, she has the name, the profile, the track record and kudos; it would also be an important first step for a club that has never before had a woman chair.

On Thursday, Yorkshire announced that she would step up to co-chair alongside Patel to help ensure “a thorough and seamless transition within the club’s leadership”, continuing to serve as interim chair until a new person is appointed after interviews expected towards the end of March.

Whichever way it falls, with former chair Colin Graves having already stated his desire to return to a club which owes some four-fifths of its circa £20m debt to his own Family Trusts, Grey-Thompson is proud to be part of the set-up full-stop, saying: “For me, just having the chance to join Yorkshire… you don’t even have to tell people it’s Yorkshire cricket. You just say Yorkshire and people automatically assume it’s Yorkshire cricket. That’s the power of it, the pride in it.”

Winner of 11 Paralympic golds and holder of 30 world records during her incredible wheelchair racing career, in which she inspired so many and touched so many lives, Grey-Thompson has a CV longer than Hadrian’s Wall.

One could probably fill an entire edition of The Yorkshire Post with her various sporting achievements, the administrative roles that she has held, the board positions, the parliamentary work, the charity duties, the advisory positions and so on; a glance at her Wikipedia page is enough to leave one dizzy, marvelling at her spirit and stamina.

But although she has been there, done it and got the T-shirt and remains exceptionally busy across her various fields, the challenges at Yorkshire were significant and varied.

How has she found being part of such a traumatic period?

“It has been (traumatic), and it’s been really hard on lots of people,” she says, “but I’ve been in sport a long time and although I haven’t been through anything quite like this before, I’ve been through other really tough things in sport - not so much in my competing days, but in sports administration.

“I was at British Athletics where there were several restructures, I’ve been involved in lots of governing body restructures and things like that, so being in the middle of something that’s hard and challenging is not new.

“It’s hard when you see some of the headlines, of course, and it’s really difficult because you know people are really hurting - that’s hard.

“But we’ve got to keep going to get Yorkshire where it needs to be and settled, and it would be great if we could just go back to talking about cricket.

“Everyone wants it (the troubles) to be over, but there’s stuff we’ve got to go through to get it to be over. You can’t kind of rush to the end, you can’t do any shortcuts.

“I’ve no idea what will come from the CDC (hearings). Some of that’s going to be hard, I’m expecting it to be hard, but we’ve come a long way from when the stuff was first in the press and we’ve got to build and develop and try to take things forward.”

With her fingers in so many pies and her schedule crammed, one wonders how Grey-Thompson finds time to fit it all in.

This is no light commitment for her - she puts in the hours and hopes to be at Yorkshire for the long haul.

What made her take on the challenge?

Having a Yorkshire-born husband helped - “Ian is massively supportive of everything I do” - but there is also that drive and determination to make a positive difference, qualities that characterised her Paralympic career.

“To be involved in something that’s happening right now, to be involved in something that needs help, that was important,” she says.

“So I applied, I was interviewed, I talked a lot of duty of care, the stuff I’ve spent years and years working on.

“But, coming in, it’s been more than that - although I expected that. I expected there to be governance work and, because I’ve been involved in sport for a long time, there weren’t any shocks.

“I’ve spoken to loads of people, and everyone’s at a different point. Even day-by-day people’s emotions can change, but people have been really open and honest.

“I’m also really interested in the power of cricket for girls and women. When I was in school (I went to school in Wales, so rugby was our first sport and cricket was pretty close behind), girls didn’t play cricket, they didn’t play rugby.

“But then you look at what’s happened with the Lionesses, with women’s sport in general, and you think there must be so many girls and women out there who’d like the chance to do it.

“There’s few sports like cricket that can bring a whole range of different people together and it’s about giving people the chance to play.

“Whether it’s bringing in people at player pathway level, or just to be completely and utterly useless at sport but have a really good time anyway, that’s all you want.

“We’ve got to minimise the barriers to get people coming in, which goes into lots of wider things that I’m interested in too.”

Grey-Thompson, who lives in Eaglescliffe, County Durham, some 200 metres outside the Yorkshire border (we can forgive her for that slight geographical imperfection), comes from a passionate sporting background.

“My dad was a huge cricket fan,” she says. “He lost his two front teeth playing cricket.”

How come?

Grey-Thompson chuckles: “He didn’t hit the ball that was coming towards him!”

She continues: “So I grew up kind of watching it. My dad played sport and watched sport, and my mum watched loads of sport, and as kids we were massively encouraged to watch lots of sport.”

Grey-Thompson’s own daughter was born on Yorkshire soil - although not in the conventional manner by which parents ensured that any potential sons were qualified to play for the county under the old birthright rule.

The story is a belter and Grey-Thompson tells it beautifully…

“When my daughter was born in Cardiff, my husband came in with this big sticking plaster and I said, ‘What’s that?’ I’m literally about to give birth and he’s like, ‘It’s Yorkshire soil.’ I stuck it on my back and it was as close as we could get to it (giving birth in Yorkshire).

“I had to have a general anaesthetic, and the anaesthetist was like, ‘Why have you got this big piece of sticking plaster on your back?’ I went, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ And she went, ‘No, I need to know. Is it MRSA or something? Have you got a cut?’ I was like, ‘No, no, I’ve just got some mud from my garden.’ And she’s like, ‘What? Well, that’s just stupid.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s Yorkshire soil. Look … just… it’s fine.’

“And then she went off to the consultant who was doing the Caesarean and basically went, ‘Oh my God, she’s mad. She’s got Yorkshire soil on her back.’ And he’d played rugby at quite a high level in Ireland and he just went, ‘Yeah, I totally get it. It’s fine. Move on.’ It was all a good laugh.”

We could certainly do with a few of those in Yorkshire cricket after a tough couple of years.

And with Grey-Thompson on the scene, the prospects look good.