Yorkshire will announce this week that their director of coaching, Wayne Clark, will not be at Headingley this season.

Australian-born Clark, pictured, who guided Yorkshire to the county championship title in 2001 and was in charge last summer when they lifted the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, still has a year of his three-year contract to run.

But Yorkshire have been negotiating with Clark for some weeks now and it is understood a decision to release him will be taken at a meeting of the club's Management Board on Thursday, when all the loose ends will be tied up.

In an extensive re-structuring of the coaching

system, former Yorkshire and Bradford League batsman Kevin Sharp is expected to be appointed batting coach with second team coach Arnie Sidebottom being responsible for the bowling.

New director of cricket, Geoff Cope, will be directly in charge of operations and he will spend a lot of time at Yorkshire matches this summer as they focus their energies on trying to gain immediate promotion into Division One of the championship.

Both Cope and club president Robin Smith have been in Australia at different times during the Ashes series and each has met up with Clark to discuss his future.

It appears as if Yorkshire wanted to change his role and offered to make him bowling coach but Clark declined.

It is expected that Yorkshire will issue a statement setting out the viewpoint of both parties shortly.

Smith said today: "All I can say is that certain discussions have taken place in Perth with Wayne Clark and that the outcome of those talks, which involved some change of role, has not yet been concluded.

"I am hoping to be in contact with Clark's solicitors later today when I would expect the matter to be finalised."

The probable outcome is that there will be a mutual parting of the ways with Yorkshire paying up Clark.

Although Clark worked wonders with Yorkshire's morale in 2001 when they claimed the championship crown for the first time in 33 years, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the way the team performed and their attitude last year, despite winning the C&G Trophy.

Yorkshire's decision to go along with Clark's wish to take the captaincy off David Byas led to Byas moving to Lancashire and the Tykes never looked as disciplined or as motivated without their former leader.

Clark was brought to Yorkshire after a successful six-year spell as coach of Western Australia when they twice won the Sheffield Shield/Pura Milk Cup and twice emerged winners of the one-day Mercantile Trophy.

Also at Thursday's meeting, Yorkshire will be receiving a full report from Cope on Darren Lehmann's five-match ban by the ICC for racist remarks but they are likely to agree with Cope that the club need take no action of their own.