Gale made his legal claim along with the 2nd XI coach Ian Dews, bowling coach Richard Pyrah, head of the academy Richard Damms and strength and conditioning coaches Ian Fisher and Peter Sim.

Gale spent his entire career at Yorkshire, making his playing debut in 2004, skippering the side between 2009-16 and then being propelled into a head coach role upon his retirement. Upon his sacking by Yorkshire, he also failed to win a new contract with the Headingley-based Hundred side Northern Superchargers.

The cases were filed individually, but were heard together as they involved identical circumstances. Gale and his fellow complainants are challenging the reasons given for their sackings - made without severance pay - the strength of any evidence against them and the lack of due process. Sixteen members of the county staff were abruptly sacked after signing a joint letter in October stating that Rafiq was on a "one-man mission to bring down the club" and questioning the club's confused response.

A full tribunal hearing has now been scheduled in Leeds between October 31 and November 11, but Yorkshire are now expected to try to avoid further damaging publicity and settle the compensation figure following the conclusion of an employment judge that the case was "well founded". Their initial offer of compensation to the six before the judgment was made had been widely dismissed as derisory.

Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford, who took over as chairman of the club last November as the racism crisis caused sweeping changes, conceded the extent of Yorkshire's financial predicament in his annual report to members 10 days ago which revealed a £795,000 loss for the year and a provision of £1.9 million for compensation and legal fees associated with the affair.

Debts are in danger of spiralling once more towards £20 million and a financial restructuring is inevitable with the main question being the future involvement of the Graves Trust, which has loaned the club around £15 million on commercial terms. Colin Graves, a former Yorkshire chair, was forced to distance himself from the Trust when he became chair of the ECB, and is regularly heard emphatically refuting the suggestion that they give him an underhand influence on the club's affairs.

Lord Patel wrote: "We have been rocked to our foundations. We have incurred £1.9 million of exceptional item expenditure during the year. These relate to various costs associated with the racism allegations against the club… This has a significant impact on the club's financial position and it will be necessary to complete a refinancing exercise over the coming months."

Further changes are underway. Paul Hudson, Yorkshire's finance director, is preparing to step down, with the COO Andrew Dawson stepping in until a permanent CEO is recruited. The post has been unfilled since Yorkshire paid off Arthur shortly before Christmas with Lord Patel fulfilling some functions, even though he has been a low-key figure at Headingley during the season.

An ECB inquiry into Yorkshire's mishandling of Rafiq's whistle-blowing on racism is also dragging on, with high-profile lawyers involved. Yorkshire anticipate disrepute charges and financial penalties with the added possibility that the club could still be docked points even though the season is two months underway.