Yorkshire cricket scandal a question of mandatory constitutional reform - Yorkshire Post Letters

John Rathmell’s plea for Chris Waters to stop the vendetta against Lord Patel and the bulk of the new board misses the point entirely. Large numbers of the members only voted for the mandatory constitutional reforms with a gun against their head.

No wonder 80 per cent voted to avoid insolvency and the loss of international cricket. But members were required to allow the new board to make several constitutional changes which now renders them virtually unsackable for three years regardless of their competence.

The constitutional changes are outrageous. Directors cannot be elected without prior agreement from the existing ones and the sop of two new directors from the membership is equally undemocratic.

The board selects the two candidates and in the same way as with the six new non-executive members, no other candidate choice is being offered to the members.

This is not about racism. There is no room for it at any level. Rafiq was not sacked because of it if you believe the findings of the independent report not yet in the public domain.

You only need to read the YP disclosure today of the letter, the signing of which was apparently the sole reason for 14 people losing their jobs, to understand why members continue to be angry not only with “Hapless” Hutton who failed to exercise proper leadership but more importantly with the tunnel vision of Lord Patel who seems to have chosen to ignore the facts in front of him in order to pursue his own agenda regardless of the human consequences for these individuals and their families.

It smacks of either total incompetence or gross negligence to me. No wonder Lord Patel demanded to be indemnified for his actions. Would the members have agreed if they had been fully aware of the contents of this letter.

Lord Patel has potentially cost the club £2-3m in avoidable costs. Sacking the coaches and medical support pre-season was so disruptive that it arguably also cost the club a place in the first division.

It seems to me that Chris Waters was far too generous in offering to pay his taxi-fare.He has already taken the club for a ride.