Yorkshire’s board has unanimously agreed to accept an offer for the club from Colin Graves, ending a day of delay and confusion during which the board considered Graves’s offer, the local MP asked alternative investors to come forward, and speculation mounted that the club’s own rules would prevent Graves returning as chairman.
Sources suggested that the delay was due to the complexity of the deal, rather than any disagreement among board members. Graves has yet to share with the board his plans for the club – rumoured to involve converting it from a members’ club to a private company – but is expected to do so in the coming days. His takeover must still be agreed by members, and in a statement Yorkshire said they would publish “details of the offer as well as the resolutions and rule changes that are required to be ratified by members” on Thursday.
Graves, who acted as chairman or executive chairman between 2007 and 2015, is now expected to issue a full apology to victims of racism at Yorkshire, and to those who found offensive his description of dressing-room abuse as “banter”. He will also accept the findings and recommendations of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket last year.
However, Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds North West, whose constituency includes Yorkshire’s Headingley home, said that “words are not enough – we need to have a very clear action plan”. Sobel said he was concerned both about Graves’s intention to take full personal control over the club, and that he would not take the problem of racism seriously.
“Yorkshire County Cricket Club has admitted the racism prevalent at the club, exposed by the brave testimony of Azeem Rafiq. Mr Graves has dismissed what the club has admitted, describing it as banter,” he said. “I am very concerned that we would lose the progress we have made [after] a return by Mr Graves and would need not just a statement recanting his views but full commitment to create a club for the whole community … I call on anyone who wants to see the club stay with the members, and safeguard the progress it has made, and who has the means to help to come forward. I will work with anyone who has the same goals as me to save Yorkshire cricket.”
Yorkshire say that “no stone has been left unturned” in their search for potential investment, having met “over 350 interested parties”, with the board conducting “a thorough and rigorous process to ensure the club stays operational for the benefit of its members, creditors and employees”. They owe the Graves Family Trust around £15m, and are said to need an immediate investment of around £4m to stave off financial crisis.
The process of turning Yorkshire into a private company would take, at a minimum, several weeks: changing its status would require a vote of at least 50% of current members, of whom at least 75% would have to approve it, followed by a second, confirmatory vote, at which a simple majority would be sufficient, between 14 days and one month later.
The club’s own rules stipulate that nobody can serve on the board for more than 12 years and that nobody can be chair for more than six years. Graves previously served as Yorkshire’s chief executive from 2002 to 2007 before being named chairman, spending a total of 12 years and seven months on the board, and eight years as chair.
