Colin Graves is eager to make a comeback as Yorkshire chair however has made it clear any return “will be on my terms”.
Lord Kamlesh Patel, who has led the membership’s makes an attempt to emerge from the fallout of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal, just lately introduced he can be stepping down in March and the acquainted face of Graves is raring to fill the void.
The businessman helped save Yorkshire from monetary oblivion in 2002 and served as chair between 2012 and 2015 earlier than embarking on a five-year stint in the identical function on the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Money is as soon as once more tight at Headingley, with compensation payouts to Rafiq and others, authorized settlements and business losses all contributing to projected losses of over £2million. The Graves Family Trust, which now operates independently from Graves, can also be owed round £16m.
The 74-year-old believes he has the experience to stabilise issues however, given the damaging revelations and allegations in opposition to the membership within the current previous, many could really feel the time is ripe for contemporary management.
Graves, formalising his curiosity within the function in usually strong phrases, advised the Yorkshire Post: “The club knows my views. If I come back, it will be on my terms.
“I’ll work with the board. I’ll work with everybody who’s there. But I’ll run it how I want to run it and I know I can turn it around in three years basically. I’m keen to do it. I don’t want money for it. I don’t want to be paid. I will give it my all and if it’s seven days a week, it’s seven days a week to get the thing back to where it needs to be. There’s a lot to be done.
“I know I can bring to the table what Yorkshire want at this point in time, which is healing all the wounds, getting the members back on side to being a members’ club, working with the board to get them in the right position going forward and to sort out the financial situation that they’re looking at.”
Whether Graves’ insistence on full autonomy chimes with the views of chief govt Stephen Vaughan, who was appointed in November and has his personal concepts about the way in which ahead, stays to be seen however Graves is reported to take pleasure in some help on the Yorkshire board.
A press release in response from the White Rose stated: “Lord Patel will step down as Chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club at the next AGM.
“A new chair will be appointed following a thorough, fair and robust recruitment process, to ensure that the right individual is in place and continue the significant progress which the club has made in his tenure.”
