Lord Patel takes aim at Robin Smith as Yorkshire reforms are blocked

GEORGE DOBELL: As well as warning that the ECB will be unwilling to sanction the return of international cricket to Leeds, Patel has also alleged Smith is leading a “clear agenda” aimed at maintaining an “outdated status quo” at the club

Yorkshire chair Lord Patel has accused Robin Smith, of “actively working with the sole intention to destabilise and even destroy” the club.

Patel, who was appointed Yorkshire chair following revelations of racism at the club, had proposed a raft of constitutional changes designed to promote diversity and convince the ECB that Leeds was a fitting host for international cricket. The ECB had stripped them of that right after the emergence of a history of racism at Yorkshire.

But Smith, a past chair and president of the club, has effectively delayed such changes being ratified by pointing out some procedural errors which took place before Patel’s involvement with the club.

It is understood those errors relate to a failure to notify the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of an agreement whereby the club could contact members by email instead of post.

The change of procedure was suggested under Smith’s tenure as chair and should have been ratified under the tenure of his successor, Roger Hutton, who took over at the AGM in April 2020 and stood down in November. 

Smith alleges that, with those changes not ratified, subsequent decisions – including the appointment of Patel as chair of the club and the call of an EGM to bring in governance reform – were invalid. As a result, Yorkshire postponed the EGM they were hoping to stage on February 2 which aimed at driving through various governance changes.

Smith also wrote a letter, published in the Yorkshire Post, which expressed doubt on the extent of racism within Yorkshire cricket and pointed out a number of schemes designed to promote inclusivity within.

^{The return of international cricket - including an Ashes Test - to Leeds remains up in the air (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)}

Now Patel has hit back. As well as making the point that, without those governance changes, the ECB are likely to remain unwilling to grant an unconditional return of international cricket to Leeds, he also alleged there was a “clear agenda” aimed at maintaining an “outdated status quo” at the club. 

“It is plain that, when I joined the club in November, it had a wealth of legacy problems inherited from previous leadership, of which former chairman Robin Smith was a part,” Patel said in a statement.

“I made a conscious decision that we would focus on a positive future for Yorkshire and remediate the inherited issues. For me and others at the club, this was part of a positive programme for change as there is no benefit to Yorkshire CCC in arguing about the past. That is a block to reform.

“There is emerging, however, a clear agenda to undermine the club, driven by opposition to our progress and a desire to maintain an outdated status quo. It is disheartening and pernicious in equal manner. 

“As we have worked this through, we have become aware of a small group of individuals who have indicated a belief that, by looking to make progress and change for the better, ‘the lamb that is Yorkshire Cricket Club is to be sacrificed on the altar of Black Lives Matter’. This is unacceptable in every possible way.

“This group is actively seeking to delay and derail the essential reforms and consequently the return of international cricket by litigating process issues, without presenting any positive alternative. We do not wish to waste our time or money on unnecessary litigation and are now having to take a longer route to passing the necessary reforms which cannot be derailed.

“Yorkshire County Cricket Club is moving forward with all deliberate speed to make the appropriate reforms, and we have no doubt these will occur because the majority of members clearly want them. The small group can now only delay, and not prevent, reform.

“There is emerging, however, a clear agenda to undermine the club, driven by opposition to our progress and a desire to maintain an outdated status quo."

“Robin Smith states he wishes to see Test cricket returned to Headingley, but in my opinion, he is actively working with the sole intention to destabilise and even destroy this club rather than see it change.”

Patel’s stance appears to have won support from ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison. Using his press conference to update on the appointment of an interim England coaching team, he said “any suggestion that there is not a problem with racism in Yorkshire is a cause for great concern".

He also complimented the current Yorkshire management on the “very comprehensive presentation” they had made to the ECB board on the progress they have made in recent months and in putting forward their case for the reinstatement of international cricket. 

That decision is now likely to be made at an ECB board meeting on February 8.

While it remains likely the club will be given the opportunity to host this year’s international fixtures (which includes a lucrative Test against New Zealand in June), it seems the deal will be conditional and stop short of guaranteeing the Ashes Test originally scheduled for Leeds in 2023.

As a result, sponsorship opportunities are likely to be compromised. Without the benefits of hosting international cricket, there are serious concerns over the financial viability of the club.

Meanwhile, Azeem Rafiq has alleged that Smith delayed producing evidence of a meeting held to discuss allegations of racism to the enquiry investigating such issues at the club.

^{Changes at Yorkshire remain in the blocks (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)}

Azeem and Adil Rashid approached a Yorkshire board member with their complaints at the end of the 2017 season but it took until August 29, 2018, for the club to hold a meeting into those claims.

The minutes of that meeting were then not produced for the investigating panel charged with looking into Azeem’s allegations. As a result, it was not featured in their report.

While those minutes (actually hand-written notes by Smith) did, eventually, come to light as part of Azeem’s employment tribunal against the club, it was only after submissions for the case had officially closed. 

“At every step of this process, it has felt to me as if Smith was dragging his heels,” Azeem told The Cricketer. “And now he is preventing Lord Patel from making the progress the club so desperately needs.

“Smith is a symbol of an old and failed regime under which an ugly culture was allowed to take root. It’s time for him to step aside and allow better men to lead us into a new and enlightened era.”  

Smith has been contacted for comment by The Cricketer.