GEOFFREY Boycott will not be walking away from Yorkshire cricket, despite failing in his bid to win a position on the club's board on Saturday.

The legendary former White Rose and England opening batsman admitted his disappointment shortly after the result of the members' vote was revealed at the club's annual meeting at Headingley.

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur, Robin Smith and Sir Gary Verity were all elected, with the Boycott vote standing at 602 for and 758 against.

Boycott refused to field questions from the media after the meeting, but read a statement.

"I thought I could do some good for the club," said the 75-year-old, who did not confirm whether he would or would not accept the offer of being Yorkshire's first official Global Ambassador.

"To all those people who voted for me, thank you. To all those that didn't, I just want everybody to know I love the club. It's been part of my life for 60 years. I love its history and traditions, and I know many of the members personally.

"I just wanted to put some points of view, some opinions, some views to help.

"It's not going to change anything. I will be watching and supporting the team, as I've always done. We have a very good set of players, an excellent coach, good management behind the scenes that are a pleasure to watch.

"I will be here for the first match of the season. I have already booked to go to Scarborough. It falls in nicely that I'm not commentating. So, disappointing, but nothing's changed."

Of the offer to become Global Ambassador, a role which Boycott effectively does now on an unofficial basis, he added: "I know nothing about it."

Yorkshire chairman Steve Denison admitted he was "desperately keen" to sit down with Boycott to discuss the role.

He said: "As we've said all along, we want everybody in the club to be playing to their strengths, and his strength is in that ambassadorial role, shouting about Yorkshire County Cricket Club around the world and bringing people into the ground at Headingley, particularly on international day.

"He's a legend of the club, and we want to see him at Headingley at every possible opportunity. He'll always be welcome here, so let's hope that's that happens going forward.

"I have been talking to him about it for a long time. What we haven't done is explore the practicalities. He's a busy man. He's around the world, he has his broadcasting commitments.

"We want to sit down with him and work out what's best for Geoffrey Boycott. Then we'll try to accommodate him."

In what was, in truth, a quieter annual meeting than expected, elsewhere Martyn Moxon fired a broadside at the ECB for their decision to introduce a no-toss rule in Championship matches should the away team choose to bowl first.

He described it as a debacle, while also saying umpires and pitch-liaison officers have been weak in their handling of points deductions for poor pitches.

Denison also revealed that Yorkshire were keen to see the Championship remain at 16 matches instead of 14 from 2017, but that the cut was inevitable.

He also said that the majority of other counties "are not interested in the Championship" and more focused on the profitable T20 Blast.