Colin Graves is right to seek demutualisation of Yorkshire County Cricket Club - Yorkshire Post Letters

The reality is that members’ mutual control at Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) has already been largely usurped, removed in early 2022 by the first raft of Lord Patel’s many changes to club rules.

One of those changes guarantees that the board will have a preponderance of board directors who are not club members. There are only two (out of twelve) ‘member directors’.

Even then club members do not have free elections to decide who they will be. Those allowed to stand have to be pre-selected by the non-member directors, before they are put to a members vote, without a choice of candidates.

So Lord Patel succeeded in creating a self perpetuating board that in practice did not necessarily reflect the democratic will of the members. As one would expect, this board was strong on diversity and inclusivity, but unfortunately audited accounts now show that, over two financial years of operation, it has been financially incompetent.

The outflow of cash has been allowed substantially to exceed the inflow, creating a large deficit. That is why they couldn’t continue. The consequent financial mess now has to be cleaned up by others, and the level of indebtedness is already so high that further loans are unsustainable.

Equity investment is therefore the only answer. Unfortunately, obtaining such investment is incompatible with the existing legal (but in practice illusory) mutual status.

We must move forward to survive. All Yorkshire members and cricket fans should support Colin Graves’ proposals to formally demutualise, so that we become investable and have a future.