Yorkshire CCC latest: Colin Graves pulls out of race to become chairman and takes swipe at the board

COLIN GRAVES has withdrawn from the race to become the next chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and accused the board of acting “negligently” and against Yorkshire’s best interests by rejecting his offer to help save the club.

Graves, the multi-millionaire founder of the Costcutter supermarket group, wanted to return to a role he left in 2015 to become chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board to help Yorkshire recover financially after the racism scandal.

The club has spent over £3.5m on the crisis in the past two years and its latest accounts warn that without further funding of around that amount, Yorkshire “will not be able to continue as a going concern”.

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The club also owes circa £15m to the Graves family trust with a further payment of £500,000 due in October, followed by the full balance of the debt in October next year.

Colin Graves claims he has been treated as a "last resort" option. Picture Tony Johnson.Colin Graves claims he has been treated as a "last resort" option. Picture Tony Johnson.
Colin Graves claims he has been treated as a "last resort" option. Picture Tony Johnson.

Graves wrote to the club last Thursday offering, were he elected, the agreement of trustees to extend the loan repayment date by a further three years, giving him time to refinance and restructure the club.

Graves said he had spoken to new outside people who have guaranteed investment but that he would need “total control to run the board, the executive and the club for the benefit of the Yorkshire members”.

Yorkshire said that demand would run counter to the fairness and transparency of the process and that at no time did Graves make “a clearly defined, tangible offer that the board was able to consider formally, unlike other interested parties involved in the refinance process”.

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The club is presently talking to various parties about the refinancing - including the Frasers Group run by Mike Ashley, the billionaire former owner of Newcastle United.

In a letter to Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, the acting Yorkshire chair, Graves said that the club approached him to ask if he wanted to return only to then treat him as a “last resort” option. He claimed that “other excellent candidates have been rejected”.

Graves’s letter reads: “It is with a great degree of sadness that I have to inform you and your fellow board members that I withdraw my application and offer to become chairman of YCCC.

“I believe this entire situation and process you have conducted as a board has not been conducted in the best interest of our great club.

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“As directors, it appears that you may have acted negligently to the impending financial crisis that the club is facing.

“You as a club approached me on the 9th January 2023 (via a director), asking me if I was interested in returning to YCCC as chairman.

“Since then I have outlined my positive approach to doing that role unpaid, and to save our great club from its impending financial crisis while respecting the confidentiality of our discussions you requested of me.

“I have gone through every process and interviews that you and (executive search company) Perrett Laver have established, providing everything that you required.

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“For the last two months I have been told - ‘you would do a great job with your experience and knowledge of cricket and the club over the past 20 years’, and that you personally looked forward to working with me.

“It would appear that your board is determined to obtain investment into the club from any outside source - other than using my offer to stabilise the club, and then to trade out of the difficult situation the previous chairman and your fellow directors have placed this members’ club in.

“As you know, this was achieved before in 2002, when the club had no assets to utilise as collateral in its refinancing.

“After five months of constant discussions, interviews, exchange of emails, it would appear that your board only require my services as chairman as a last resort. Other excellent candidates have been rejected in a process that has proven to be arduous and disappointing to all who participated.

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“I also understand that the club continues to recruit new positions and spend finances it doesn’t have going forward.

“In January I stated the club needed a full cost review immediately to stop the haemorrhaging of cash and it appears this has not been done, which is a very negligent action by its directors.

“Over the past three years the heart and sole of our club has been ripped apart - ex-players, media/broadcasters, our county playing partners, long standing members and many others say the same —-that the totally independent board, directors without any cricket experience and the executive, have no conceptual knowledge or passion regarding the 160-year history of YCCC.

“Overall my disappointment at withdrawing from this application is immense, as I know that I could have done the job that is required at YCCC to save our great club and to re-establish it as a leader in English cricket.

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“I truly hope that your new investment partner achieves this for the benefit of the entire Yorkshire membership, and may I wish the new Yorkshire chair person every success in the challenges ahead.”

In response to Graves’s letter, the club issued this statement to The Yorkshire Post: “We remain at a critical point in the future of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

“The board is squarely focused on securing the financial security of the club and we are continuing the positive conversations around investment from various sources.

“We were notified that Colin Graves decided to withdraw his application for chair this morning (Monday).

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“We are disappointed that he has decided to do so publicly and are obliged to make it absolutely clear that at no point did Colin make a clearly defined, tangible offer that the board was able to consider formally, unlike other interested parties involved in the refinance process. This point was made to Colin on numerous occasions.

“We have consistently outlined that the new chair would be appointed using a fair, thorough and robust process, which is ongoing. Colin indicated that the terms of his return as chair would require total control of the board and executive. This would run counter to that process, as well as the best practice governance requirements set out in the County Governance Code that were agreed by all counties in 2019.

“Colin also makes a number of allegations about the board’s actions in regard to finances which are unfounded and indicate a distinct lack of understanding of the current position of YCCC.

“The short and long-term financial wellbeing of the club remains the board’s priority, and we will not be distracted by speculation which is unhelpful to our primary objective of securing the future of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and making it a welcoming club for everyone.”