By Scott Heinrich BBC Sport Online

The signs at the beginning of the 2002 season were not good for Wayne Clark, the Yorkshire coach who was sacked by the county on Monday.

Indeed, Clark found himself in hot water before a ball had even been bowled.

He said, at a pre-season luncheon, that he saw his job as primarily a producer of talent for England, and that any trophies won along the way were a bonus.

The argument used to be that a healthy Yorkshire means a healthy England.

But this bizarre comment was coming from a man whose side were about to embark on a Championship defence.

Press pounced

Unsurprisingly, the Headingley faithful didn't like it, and even less surprisingly the press pounced on it.

The unflappable man that he is, Clark was unmoved in steeling his side for the season ahead.

But the episode was the first of many hurdles in a tumultuous season, a campaign that was momentarily triumphant and mostly unsatisfactory.

Byas strolls onto Headingley as a Lancashire player

The biggest story, of course, was their inability to stay in the Championship's top-flight let alone put forth a defence worthy of the name.

But Yorkshire's off-field problems were mounting, and over the course of the season behind-the-scene events would manifest themselves on the pitch.

Certainly, in actual terms the defection of captain David Byas to arch-rivals Lancashire left Yorkshire one quality player down.

Include the injured Darren Gough and England-tied pair Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan in that category.

But Clark's unwillingness to bolster his squad suggested either complete faith in his players or an actual belief that his remit was to nurture future internationals above all else.

Under fire

As Yorkshire searched for their first Championship win the state of the Headingley pitch came under fire, as it had done in previous years.

The issue came to a head when Lancashire, bowling first, rumbled their hosts for 81 in the B&H Cup, their lowest ever in the competition.

The criticism moved captain Darren Lehmann to have a pop at the the Taunton pitch after 16 wickets fell on one day in a Championship fixture against Somerset.

As the Tykes continued to struggle on the pitch, Aussie Lehmann found he had more to defend than 22 yards of turf.

His spells of absence when on international duty, coupled with form not reproductive of the season prior, prompted some insiders to question his selection as Byas' successor.

Discipline issues

There were discipline issues that needed attention, most notably Steve Kirby's display at Grace Road where he hurled the ball at Darren Maddy and earned three penalty points from the ECB.

It was all Lehmann's detractors needed, and his notoriously blas� approach to captaincy was attacked from the worst possible quarters - the supporters.

On Radio Five Live's Yorkshire Uncovered, a selection of fans pilloried Lehmann as "one of the lads", who finds it "difficult to keep the discipline in the dressing room".

Even in the off-season, Yorkshire found themselves attractiing unwanted attention as a result of Lehmann's racist outburst in the VB Series game against Sri Lanka.

Kirby's outburst at Grace Road was bad for Yorkshire

And then there was the perennial problem of finances.

An emergency general meeting was held in late August, but the threat of bankruptcy was held at bay as members voted to double the club's five million pound overdraft.

To the delight of followers Yorkshire saved the best for last, romping to victory in the C&G Trophy final on a sunny afternoon when all was forgotten just for a day.

But as much as players might like to convince themselves that a Trophy season is a good season, relegation is still the stuff of nightmares at Headingley.

The good news is that Division Two cricket will do little harm to the club's fragile finacial position, but the Yorkshire Cricket Club is about more than money.

In 2001, 33 years had elapsed until finally the most successful county side in history again won the title.

For their sake - and England's, too, if Clark is right - let us hope it is not another 33 before Yorkshire are again on top.

But any resuregence Yorkshire undergo in the future will take place without Clark, the Aussie martyr who perished for England's cause.