Yorkshire stalwart Geoffrey Boycott OBE has allayed fears that his former county are in a financial crisis.

The ex-White Rose opener is a director on the board at Headingley, and has responded to reports that they are having to tighten their belts to the extent of laying staff off in the near future.

Boycott said: "I don't think there's a major worry because nearly everybody's going through a little hiccup. All counties are struggling.

"I don't think there will be a big problem as long as there is some careful management of things. That's by all counties, not just Yorkshire."

The White Rose county, whose chief executive Stewart Regan spoke of a £17m debt at the annual meeting back in March, will officially open their multi-million pound Carnegie Pavilion at next week's Pakistan v Australia Test match.

Yorkshire are hoping that a strong crowd will boost their coffers, making up for not staging a Test until South Africa visit England in 2012.

Boycott believes the bidding process for international matches is the flawed.

He continued: "You can't have counties bidding against each other for a Test. The money will just escalate.

"There's nine Test match grounds, but only seven Tests a year. Yet they (the ECB) are wanting all Test match grounds to improve their facilities.

"Everybody has to borrow money as a result, and that means there is an overdraft and cash-flow problems."

Yorkshire would have also hoped for strong ticket sales for their recent Friends Provident Twenty20 campaign, which totalled eight group matches. But they only had two attendances above 5,000.

Boycott continued: "The people running it think they can make lots of money by playing more and more games, but they play too much. They'll overkill it.

"Put it this way. What's your favourite meal? If your mum made it for you on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, by Friday or Saturday you'd be fit to throw it at her."

Yorkshire complete their North Division campaign with trips to play Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge tomorrow night and Derbyshire at the County Ground on Sunday.

Geoffrey Boycott has just re-released his book, Play Cricket the Right Way. It is published by Great Northern books, priced at £9.99