Yorkshire CCC finally agree to pay off unfairly dismissed head coach Andrew Gale

The club had reportedly threatened to withdraw its offer of compensation to Gale after admitting that he was unfairly dismissed over the Azeem Rafiq racism affair along with 15 other colleagues.

Yorkshire released a statement on September 15 saying that they had settled with Gale and their former bowling coach Rich Pyrah, only to subsequently take that statement down from their website.

It was said that the club was unhappy that details of the agreements had appeared in a national newspaper the previous night - although, in a bizarre twist, it was reported that the paperwork relating to Pyrah’s case had been signed.

Gale’s settlement brings to an end a months-long saga which averts the prospect of an employment tribunal hearing at the end of next month.

A statement released to The Yorkshire Post read: “On the 3rd December 2021 The Yorkshire County Cricket Club Limited (“the club”) took the decision to dismiss its coaching and medical staff.

“The club has acknowledged that its dismissals of that group of employees was procedurally unfair.

“After meaningful dialogue between the club and the legal advisers acting on behalf of Andrew Gale the parties can confirm that acceptable terms of settlement have been finalised.

“The financial terms of the settlements are confidential and no further public statement will be made about the terms.

“Mr Gale wishes to thank his family, friends and legal team for their support.”

News of the settlement means that there is now only one outstanding case relating to those summarily sacked by Lord Kamlesh Patel, the Yorkshire chairman, in a cull said to be costing the club a substantial seven-figure sum.

Wayne Morton, the former head of sports, science and medicine, is pursuing a legal case on behalf of himself and other subcontracted staff also dismissed, with High Court proceedings believed to have been issued. Morton, the former England physiotherapist, who had given Yorkshire 38 years’ loyal service, has maintained a dignified silence throughout the saga.

He was one of the 14 staff, along with Gale, who signed a letter querying the club’s handling of the crisis last year and which also questioned the character/motives of ex-player Rafiq, who was released by Yorkshire in 2018.

Another of the letter’s signatories, the highly-respected club psychologist Dr Mark Nesti, who previously worked at Liverpool John Moores University, told The Yorkshire Post last month that Rafiq had, in his estimation, deliberately set out to “destroy the club or certainly wreck it”. Nesti described some of the allegations as “laughable” and the mass cull typical of the prevailing “hysteria”.

Gale, 38, stressed earlier this summer that he denied “each and every allegation” that Rafiq raised against him and that “I refuse to have my life defined by unsubstantiated allegations by an embittered former colleague and by a YCCC/ECB witch-hunt”. He added that Patel had “done a disservice to 16 families”.

Gale is refusing to take part in the ECB’s disciplinary hearings , which Rafiq is now demanding are held in public even though that puts the ECB in an invidious position having obtained evidence on the provision t hat the hearings are private.