When Stewart Regan said that poor ticket sales for Pakistan versus Australia would lead to job losses, few expected he would be first out of the door.

As such, his appointment as chief executive of the Scottish Football Association is an intriguing one, especially given the timing.

On the one hand, Regan's most recent public appearances have seen him stressing the financial hardship the White Rose county are currently undergoing - a state of affairs somebody of his position must take at least some, though certainly not all, responsibility for.

Yet on the other, after four years in charge at Headingley, Yorkshire are currently sitting pretty at the top of both the LV= County Championship table, as well as their Clydesdale Bank 40 group.

Times being as tough as they are across the sporting world, the Scottish FA will be crossing their fingers that Regan's tenure at Hampden brings slightly less economic hardship than his former colleagues at Yorkshire must now manage, but they will certainly be hoping for a measure of the on-field success the Tykes have managed this year.

Regan, like most other cricket administrators, has come in for his fair share of flak in the four years since he took the job but there is no escaping the fact that delivering the championship title this season - the team's first such success since 2001 - would go down as a considerable triumph.

In fact, it will be a source of some frustration to him that the opportunity with Scotland did not come at a time when he might have bowed out with silverware rather than balance books to the fore.

Due to the timing of Regan's appointment, significant attention will be paid to the decision to bid for the neutral Pakistan Test that failed to deliver the revenues Regan and his fellow board members anticipated.

In particular, the question may be asked north of the border whether the experiment was an error of judgement that could be a cause for concern.

But despite the unexpectedly low uptake in ticket sales, Regan should be shielded from a certain amount of blame on this front - the demographic of the region, the quality of the opposition and the mid-summer timing suggested, at least on paper, that Yorkshire would be an ideal neutral host for Pakistan.

Indeed, prior to the match, most commentators predicted it would be a success and Regan and company would almost certainly have been criticised had they not pushed to host the game.

Areas where they will have to ask themselves questions are on ticket pricing and marketing. Whether the product on offer was publicised and sold at the correct levels is certainly open to question and the SFA will be hopeful these are lessons he can take advantage of in his new role.

The 46-year-old's other business experience may also come in useful, with Regan heavily involved in the commercial side of sport having been a central figure in the rebranding of the Football League Championship during his time as a director.

In addition, his 16-year association with the brewing industry offers the kind of non-sporting history the SFA were seeking after Gordon Smith's tenure.

Regan's appointment at the helm of a national governing body also represents an interesting 'hunter-turned-gamekeeper' scenario. He was part of a county delegation that met with Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi to discuss expansion plans for an English offshoot of the competition - talks which went down like a lead balloon with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Now, of course, he will be looking to steer the wider Scottish football family on a unified course and it will no doubt be helpful that he knows how men in charge of individual clubs are thinking.