Dear Editor, Three weeks ago your sports reporter Brian Halford ran the headline “Bears will do the business on and off the field”.

Last week’s headline said: “Bears in good shape on and off the field”. The two quotations were attributed respectively to Chairman of WCCC Norman Gascoigne and Chairman Colin Povey. They rather suggest a bit of media management by the club.

It’s a pity that Mr Halford didn’t attend the recent WCCC AGM. Had he done so he would have discovered that the picture is not quite so rosy, and that many WCCC members are unhappy.

Let’s go right back to basics. The club rules state that the objects of the club are “the promotion and furtherance of the game of cricket within the county and the provision for members of facilities for the enjoyment of such game.”

Many members feel that the last six years have seen a deliberate and sustained deterioration in the facilities and services provided to them. The arrival of the £34 million “iconic new pavilion” has simply exacerbated the situation.

In this huge development perhaps only one tenth of the space provided is available to the members, while acres of space are provided to the Jaguar Club and the 1882 Club.

These facilities have been deliberately provided for people other than the members of WCCC. And yet it is WCCC that carries the debt of £20 million on its balance sheet.

The list of grievances expressed by members is extensive and growing. Lack of space in the members’ “lounge” and outside seating, chaotic car parking, woeful catering, unhelpful big match ticketing, surly and unhelpful staff last year (although 2012 has seen something of an improvement in this respect) – the list goes on. It’s no wonder that the club is losing members.

On top of this there is now a regime of secrecy. We never get a comprehensive report on the actual state of membership (membership per category, whether numbers are up or down on previous years, for example). The 2012 Yearbook simply shows a total membership of 4882 - clearly an abysmal figure given the size of the catchment area. And obtaining a copy of the 2011 accounts was a considerable challenge.

Once you have obtained a copy of the accounts it is immediately apparent why they were not widely distributed.

On a turnover of £11.7 million, the club made a loss of £700,000. And this is after receiving a grant of £2.4 million from the ECB, and after paying out only £342,000 in loan interest. The interest charge in 2012 will be £1 million. Things don’t look so rosy on the financial front.

The people running WCCC need to remember that it is a members’ club. The decline in facilities and services provided to members must be reversed, and there needs to be a membership recruitment campaign.

A membership of 10,000 should be the obvious immediate target.

Anthony N Cook, Edgbaston, Birmingham