Yorkshire CCC chairman needs to stop ignoring the press - Yorkshire Post Letters

On November 11, YCCC held an EGM to vote on six items on the agenda. Sadly since Lord Patel arrived as Chairman on November 3 last year he has banned all press and media from attending the AGM and five EGM’s (though three were cancelled at the last minute).

In my 45 years as a Yorkshire Member one could always rely on your Cricket Correspondent, Terry Brindle, David Hopps, Rob Mills and Chris Waters to attend these meetings without fail and report the honest outcome of key agenda items for the general public the following day.

Other newspapers correspondents would also be present with Radio Leeds and sometimes BBC and ITV if they sensed a top story.

On January 22, Lord Patel addressed the membership for the first time at a forum meeting, he spoke for 25 minutes full of charm, talking about being “transparent” and “open” and willing to “listen and learn about our club”.

In fact he has been just the opposite in ignoring the press, who keep our club in the public eye and report our success on the field.

At the above meeting in question, and for those who do not have a computer to read the club’s website about the meeting, let me inform you what transpired.

The two resolutions for a New Members Code of Conduct which required a two thirds majority, slipped through with a 70 per cent and 70.6 per cent majority. The two Yorkshire members to join the Board were elected with 86 per cent for Richard Levin and 80 per cent for John Jackson, congratulations to them both.

Perhaps the most important items are the final two, regarding retaining 14 x4 day Championship Matches in future years. This follows the Andrew Strauss review which is trying to reduce this down to just 10 x 4 day games.

For a member to get a resolution onto the agenda it needs 400 signatures to sign a petition. I am delighted to tell you that one of our well known members, Simon Parsons took it on himself to do this during the final two Championship matches in the season at Headingley.

He succeeded in reaching this figure on his own bat, and with a little help from his friends the total signatures reached 497 including two England and Yorkshire Cricketers, Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Richard Hutton.

These two resolutions were passed by the Membership by 99 per cent and 98.7 per cent. As a result Yorkshire will vote against any reduction in Championship in the future at the ECB meetings, securing Cricket at both Headingley and Scarborough.