Former cricketer jailed over £107k youth cash ruse

A former cricketer is starting a two-year jail sentence after swiping £107,000 earmarked for youth coaching – and blowing it on expensive holidays.
A former cricketer is starting a two-year jail sentenceA former cricketer is starting a two-year jail sentence
A former cricketer is starting a two-year jail sentence

Andy Hayhurst, 52, played for Lancashire and Derbyshire, captained Somerset and in the early 1990s was hotly tipped for an England call-up with skipper Graham Gooch’s squad.

After the all rounder finally retired in 1997 he took on a £50,000-a-year director role at Lancashire Cricket Board to promote grassroots sport and help coach rising young England stars of the future. But Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how he secretly plundered £107,000 from the LCB to fund his love of lavish restaurants and foreign holidays.

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Hayhurst swindled the cash over a seven-year period. In a 12 year career starting in 1983, Hayhurst played for Lancashire, Derbyshire and

Somerset, who he captained, and there were calls for an England place although he was never capped.

In 166 matches between 1985 and 1997, he scored 7825 runs and took 110 wickets.

He then went on to become

secretary of the Lancashire Cricket Board in 2002, before being made a paid full-time Director.

He was also secretary of the Lancashire County Youth Cricket Charitable Trust.