Following a very positive dialogue since the appointment of Lord Patel as Chair in November 2021, the Trustees of the Graves Trusts have confirmed their support for Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s proposed amendments to Club rules that are intended to give clarity on the relationship between the Trustees and YCCC.
The Trustees, who are professional and independent, and the Club are in full agreement to the removal of a requirement for the Trustees’ prior written approval to be obtained before a person can be appointed a member of the Board or before the Board can remove a member.
In practice, the Trustees’ consent to an appointment of a Board member has never been withheld, and their consent to the removal of a Board member has never been requested. At all times, the Club has had sole responsibility for employment decisions.
The affairs and activities of the Club have always been managed by the Board, and the Club’s powers are exercised by the Board, which is entirely independent from the Trustees, who are not members of the Board, and have no involvement in the Board’s day-to-day decision-making. To avoid any ambiguity, the right to appoint a representative to attend Board meetings as an observer in order to monitor financial performance will also be removed from all finance agreements.
The Trustees will continue to monitor and appraise the financial stability of their investment, given their own fiduciary duties.
The proposed changes are currently under the necessary legal review, and currently being finalised before being presented to Members at the forthcoming AGM; both parties, however, are clear in their agreement for the updated terms.
Professor The Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, Chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, said: “Lending from the Graves Trusts is incredibly important financially for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, but Trustees are not involved in how we run the Club. Since I became Chair, we have had very constructive discussions with the Trustees, who are fully supportive of the steps we are taking to rebuild the Club and invested in our success, but it is clear to me that they hold no influence on the decisions of the Board as this is a commercial agreement. We are making these changes, in the interests of transparency and in line with good governance, to remove any misunderstanding of the role of the Trusts”.
