Yorkshire cancel EGM vote on governance changes because meeting "had not been properly called"

The proposals up for discussion included the appointment of board members who are not existing members, the ECB being given a seat on the club's nominations committee, and the introduction of two seats for members on the board

Yorkshire have cancelled the extraordinary general meeting at which members were due to vote on changes to the county's governance structure.

The meeting, which had been due to take place at Headingley on Wednesday (February 2), was abandoned based on "specialist legal advice" after it was revealed that it had "not been properly called under club rules."

The proposals up for discussion included the appointment of board members who are not existing members, the ECB being given a seat on the club's nominations committee, and the introduction of two seats for members on the board. 

However, there have been objections from some members over both the proposals themselves and the way in which they have been introduced by chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel.

Former Yorkshire chairman Robin Smith sent a letter to Patel last month outlining his concerns - most notably his belief that Patel cannot put resolutions on the table before being formally elected by members, and that the proposed governance changes would leave Yorkshire too open to external influence. 

^{Yorkshire chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)}

Part of the letter, which has been seen by The Cricketer, read: "You are calling upon members to accept radical changes to the club’s legal structure before you yourself have even been elected to the board.

"You are required to submit yourself to the members for election at the first general meeting after your appointment (by a discredited board, incidentally) and this you have failed to do, thus rendering the extraordinary general meeting a nullity. The proper course now is for the motion to be withdrawn and the meeting cancelled."

Though initially offering no further clarity on the matter when contacted by The Cricketer on Wednesday, Yorkshire later confirmed an error had been made.

In a statement, the club said: "The decision to cancel the EGM scheduled for February 2 was based on specialist legal advice, after it had come to the club’s attention in recent days that the meeting had not been properly called under club rules.

"Specifically, this was a legacy issue as the previous leadership of the club had failed to ensure registration of the amended club rules with the financial conduct authority. The relevant amendments to the club rules had been approved overwhelmingly by members at the March 2020 and March 2021 annual general meetings.

"Owing to this failure to register the changes, the club now understands that the notice of the 2021 meeting and this EGM should properly have been given to members by post only, rather than by post and electronic means including the YCCC website (as members had approved by passing the resolution at the 2020 meeting).

"Accordingly the notices of the meetings at the time they were called – before the registration of the changes with the FCA – were invalid until the FCA registration was completed.

"Following discovery of this oversight, YCCC has now rectified the position: the rule changes in 2020 and 2021 have been filed with the FCA as required, and they are available for public inspection. Going forward the club will be regularising the situation."

The county says it intends to rearrange the EGM "as soon as practicable and preferably before the end of this month".