Yorkshire today attempted to show as little concern as possible about David Byas ending his retirement before he had even started it in order to move across the Pennines to Lancashire.

News of Byas's shock decision took the fans by surprise and left them wondering about the real reason for him leaving Yorkshire immediately after leading them to their first championship title since 1968.

But rather than dwell on water under the bridge, Yorkshire cricket chairman Bob Platt preferred to point out how much more young talent the club had at their disposal than Lancashire.

"We have ten senior players unavailable for our pre-season tour of Grenada on March 20 and four younger ones who are at University but we are still able to raise a side for the Caribbean," said Platt. "That is the difference between ourselves and those from over there."

The Byas controversy will not come to an abrupt end, however, because it is bound to re-surface at Yorkshire's annual meeting on March 23 when their former captain is due to be elected an honorary life member of the club for his outstanding services.

Bewildered members are sure to raise the question of why he was allowed to end his contract which still had a year to run.

Yorkshire, meanwhile, have still not signed anyone to replace Darren Lehmann who is due to be in Zimbabwe with Australia for the first three weeks of the season, but South Africa's two openers, Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs, remain top of their list.

It seems Yorkshire are waiting to see if the tour is called off after Zimbabwe's presidential elections before committing themselves to someone else.