'It's outrageous': MP hits out at Colin Graves Yorkshire CCC demutualisation comments
A Leeds MP has renewed his calls for Yorkshire County Cricket Club chairman Colin Graves to scrap his plans for demutualisation.
Mr Graves believes that by turning Yorkshire from a members’ club into a private company owned by shareholders it will prevent the financial mismanagement that has laden the county with debt.
For demutualisation to prevail, 75 per cent of the membership must vote for it from a minimum 50 per cent turnout. There are 5,000-plus voting members.
However, Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel has consistently called for the Yorkshire boss to axe his plans, and called recent comments from Mr Graves “outrageous”.
The 78-year-old was speaking to The Yorkshire Post about the removal of vice-chair Phillip Hodson from the county’s board.
He was voted off the board at the end of January and sanctioned by the Cricket Discipline Panel (CDP) for remarks found to be offensive to gay people and/or those with a stammer following an investigation by the Cricket Regulator.
The former MCC president, 74, who admitted the charges, was fined and ordered to undertake equality and diversity training having made reference in jokes at the Scarborough Festival dinner in July to the “Gay Liberation Front” and a Bible salesman with a stammer, which prompted an anonymous complaint supported by a witness.
Mr Graves told this paper that he considered whether he should stand down, but people, including Mr Hodson, told him it was the “wrong time”.
He said: “We’ve got the demutualisation to try and do, which is hopefully going to happen in the next 12 months, and then we’ve got a five-year plan which is fantastic for Yorkshire with all the plans we’ve got with it for the stadium, a state-of-the-art new training centre, all sorts of stuff. We’ve got some fantastic plans.
“So everybody’s said, ‘Don’t walk away from it when you’re on the cusp of making something brilliant.’”
Mr Sobel commented: “It's outrageous that Colin Graves is using the fallout from justified anger about the offensive remarks made by one of his close allies to launch a fresh attempt to privatise Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
“The club belongs to its members, and it should continue to do so, not to Colin Graves."
A spokesperson for Yorkshire County Cricket Club said: “Colin’s comments were made as part of a wider discussion with The Yorkshire Post about the board’s recent decision and the responsibilities of the chair in helping to secure the long-term future of the club.
“YCCC is a members’ club, and our members will always be part of its future direction.”