Pudsey St Lawrence president Keith Moss has become the most powerful man in Yorkshire cricket after being elected chairman of Yorkshire CCC in succession to Sir Lawrence Byford who stepped down from the post after seven years in the hot-seat.

Sir Lawrence, re-elected president at the club's annual meeting on Saturday, had previously given notice he was ending his dual role, and Moss was unanimously voted in as chairman by his general committee colleagues at Headingley yesterday.

Moss, who was a close personal friend and neighbour of Sir Leonard Hutton, at Fulneck, where they were both born, came on to the Yorkshire committee in 1991, and his astute work as finance chairman soon pulled the club round from a parlous financial situation to one of relative riches.

"I am very flattered and honoured to be made Yorkshire chairman and I will do my best to carry on the good work of Sir Lawrence," said Moss, who added that he had four main objectives while in office.

They are: success on the field, the continued financial well-being of the club, the resolving of the ground issue, and the working in harmony of the committee and all members. "I accept there are differing views on Yorkshire's future headquarters but I am sure we can remain friends and united in the common purpose of moving Yorkshire forward into the next millennium," he said.

Sir Lawrence paid his owns tribute to Moss and said he was delighted that he had taken over as chairman.

"We have been warm friends for many years and he will do a great job for this club with his business acumen and astuteness," he said."Sir Lawrence smilingly said Moss's greatest attribute was that his granny, as acting midwife, had helped to deliver Len Hutton. "This certainly helped to give Keith an intelligent perspective on cricket," he added.

Looking back over his own time as club chairman, Sir Lawrence said he had happy memories of the harmony there had been on the committee and also of the committee's good relationship with the vast majority of members.

Bob Platt, re-elected as cricket chairman, said he was delighted with the way the team's preparations for the new season were going. It looked as if they were getting their injuries out of the way at the right time and he was confident that both Darren Gough and Craig White would be able to start the season in earnest after recovering from operations.

Yorkshire now had a smaller staff than for many years and the players had been specially selected to take them beyond 2,000 with five or six Academy cricketers getting their chance in the second team to see if they had the guts for the game at county level.

Former Yorkshire treasurer David Welch takes over as finance chairman from Moss, and David Storr becomes public relations chairman following the resignation from the general committee of Sid Fielden who previously held the post. New committee member Stuart Anderson, chairman of the YCA coaching committee, gained a place on the cricket committee along with Storr who has strong connections with Farsley Cricket Club.

The sub committees are - Cricket: Platt (chairman), Philip Sharpe, Philip Akroyd, Anderson, Storr; finance and marketing: Welch (chairman), Peter Quinn, Tony Cawdry, Tony Vann, Eric Houseman; public relations and membership: Storr (chairman), Jack Sokell, Cawdry, Akroyd, Vann.

Captain David Byas is an ex-offico member of the cricket committee.

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