Yorkshire have been stunned by an England and Wales Cricket Board decision to fund their pioneering Academy for only one year while agreeing to a four-year period for other selected counties, including Somerset, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

The ECB are to pump £50,000 a year into Academies in which they will have a shared responsibility, but Yorkshire have been told their funding will now be for only 12 months.

"The decision has come as a complete surprise and at the moment we do not know the reason why we have been cut back," said Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell.

The ECB may believe they will not be able to exercise as much control over the Yorkshire Academy as some of the others but no other county in the country has an Academy record which can stand comparison with Yorkshire for its outstanding success.

It has churned out a battery of fast bowlers that are the envy of all other counties and Yorkshire's cricket development officer Steve Oldham, who is in charge of operations, says the well has by no means dried up.

Because of the ECB's future involvement, Yorkshire are having to advertise for an Academy Director, but Oldham is almost certain to be the man that Yorkshire will want to fill the role.

Yorkshire cricket chairman Bob Platt said: "It is amazing that the ECB should decide not to finance us for four years.

"After all we have done at our Academy which has cost us around £1m to operate in the 11 years or so it has been in existence.

"We have spent about £80,000-£90,000 a year in running the Academy and we reckon that it costs us about £50,000 for each player who goes on from the Academy to play for Yorkshire."

Updated: 12:23 Friday, June 15, 2001