Yorkshire's winter of discontent took another turn for the worse yesterday when their former captain Anthony McGrath confirmed his intention to walk out on the remaining two years of his contract. Both sides immediately staked out their positions for an apparently inevitable legal battle before the 31-year-old can complete his expected move to Lancashire.
The county have now lost their three leading batsmen from last season after the retirement of Darren Lehmann and Michael Lumb's move to Hampshire, while the failure to lure Chris Adams from Sussex as captain and first-team coach has also led to the resignation of the former director of cricket David Byas.
McGrath has scored more than 9,000 first-class runs for Yorkshire, who offered him the captaincy and a three-year contract last autumn in an effort to keep him. But yesterday he issued a statement confirming he "is leaving the club with immediate effect", and citing "differences that I have not been able to resolve".
That drew an immediate warning of legal action against McGrath from Yorkshire's chief executive, Stewart Regan. "Following our own legal advice, we have notified Anthony's solicitor that we believe he is in breach of his contract in trying to terminate his agreement with the club in this way. We have tried endlessly to resolve the differences Anthony has with the club and feel very hurt that he has chosen to try and break his contract in this manner. We are now in discussions with our solicitors regarding the possibility of legal action against Anthony and also prospectively against his agent regarding his role in this matter.
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