Yorkshire County Cricket Club could take up MP Terry Rooney's accusations of racism with his Bradford North constituency Labour Party chairman if he does not make a full apology for his remarks.

Long-time Yorkshire member Geoff Holmes, of Idle, who is one of Rooney's constituents, says that he is "incandescent with rage" at his MP's claims that the county club is guilty of "deep-rooted, embedded racism".

After the T&A reported exclusively on the allegations made last Monday by Mr Rooney in the House of Commons, Yorkshire CCC chairman Robin Smith wrote to him demanding an apology within seven days but up to yesterday had not received a reply.

"If Mr Rooney refuses to apologise I will regard that as confrontational and highly unsatisfactory," said Mr Smith.

"I would certainly not allow the matter to drop and there are several courses of action to consider, one of them being to report his remarks to his constituency chairman and also acquaint him with the correspondence I have sent to Mr Rooney.

"Yorkshire and its members have been hurt and offended by his comments and we will accept nothing short of an apology."

Mr Holmes said: "Like many Yorkshire members, I have a great love and affinity for the club and we are not prepared to put up with blatant lies and accusations of racism when they don't exist.

"I certainly endorse the stand which Mr Smith is taking and we cannot allow my MP to get away with it."

But Mr Rooney, a Labour backbencher, told the T&A that he stood by his comments.

He said: "I am not going to apologise. The club has got to face up to some home truths.

"It is all very well to employ international players like Sachin Tendulkar, but the club is ignoring masses of home-grown talent on its own doorstep."

Meanwhile, recent claims in one newspaper that Yorkshire has been on the verge of completing the purchase of the cricket ground at Headingley have proved wide of the mark and it is now likely to be well into the New Year before the deal is signed and sealed.

It is believed that Yorkshire needs to raise about £15 million to buy the ground once talks with Headingley's owners - Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company - have been completed.

Mr Smith said: "The deal might be clinched before Christmas but the logistics will take longer than that. There are only seven working weeks left before Christmas and it will be into the New Year before everything is in place."

Yorkshire CCC stated at its annual meeting in March that it hoped it would be in a position to buy the ground by June but that date came and went, as did others which appeared in some sections of the media.

In September, the T&A reported exclusively that the ground purchase continued to be subjected to delays and that there was no sign of it taking place over the next few weeks.

Once a deal has been agreed, Yorkshire will still need to call an extraordinary general meeting to gain the approval of the members and with this taking three weeks there would seem to be little chance of it being held before February at the earliest.