ECB chiefs dismiss Lord Patel’s claims he sacked 16 members of Yorkshire employees on their directions as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘completely far-fetched’ after they fashioned a key a part of Michael Vaughan disciplinary listening to
Lord Patel’s claims that he was appearing on ECB directions when sacking 16 members of employees at Yorkshire have been dismissed as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘completely far-fetched,’ and ‘merely not true’ by a number of senior figures on the governing physique.
The Yorkshire chairman made the allegation in an interview with weekly newspaper Japanese Eye final month and the claims have featured prominently within the ECB’s disciplinary listening to in opposition to Michael Vaughan, which concluded on Tuesday.
The ECB’s head of authorized and integrity Meena Botros declined to corroborate Patel’s assertion beneath cross-examination from Vaughan’s lawyer, Christopher Stoner KC, on the listening to final Friday, however three senior ECB figures have since contacted Sportsmail asserting that the Labour life peer shouldn’t be telling the reality.
The veracity of Patel’s claims is important because the ECB’s case in opposition to Vaughan and 6 former Yorkshire team-mates accused of utilizing racist language in direction of Azeem Rafiq depends closely on the membership’s acceptance that there was a ‘prevailing environment’ of racism at Headingley, an admission which resulted from Patel’s resolution to plead responsible to 4 expenses of misconduct.
Yorkshire’s method to Rafiq’s allegations that he was pushed out of the membership by racist bullying modified abruptly following Patel’s appointment as chairman on 5 November 2021.
Senior ECB figures have dismissed a suggestion by Lord Patel (pictured) that he was appearing on their directions when he sacked 16 members of employees at Yorkshire in December 2021
The veracity of Patel’s claims impacts upon the Michael Vaughan disciplinary listening to
The membership had been making ready to contest Rafiq’s claims at an employment tribunal, however Patel awarded him compensation of £200,000 on his third day within the job with out having learn an impartial report from authorized agency Squire Patton Boggs into the affair.
Patel then sacked 16 members of employees by electronic mail on December 3, 2021, together with your complete teaching group, a choice which has price Yorkshire £1.47million in compensation funds, with an extra declare for £566,000 from the membership’s medical group because of be settled within the Excessive Court docket.
The declare that he was appearing on directions from Lord’s has precipitated appreciable frustration on the ECB, who weren’t made conscious that the mass sackings had been imminent till the night of December 2.
While reluctant to have interaction in a confrontation with Patel senior ECB figures have come ahead to rebut his claims, having waited till after this week’s disciplinary listening to has concluded to keep away from overshadowing the proceedings.
‘There’s not a shred of fact in these claims,’ a senior ECB supply advised Sportsmail.
‘There’s not a shred of proof to assist his assertion and it is merely not true. We did not know something concerning the sackings till they occurred, at which level we had been assured he had irrefutable proof of gross misconduct.
‘I feel he realises he should not have performed it so is seeking to unfold the blame.’
One other supply identified that as a governing physique the ECB wouldn’t become involved in staffing points at one of many counties, significantly at a time after they had been already political strain over the strain between its features as regulator, promoter and main funder of the sport.
Yorkshire paid out £1.47million in compensation funds to the sacked workers
Yorkshire modified their method to Azeem Rafiq’s (pictured) racism allegations abruptly when Lord Patel took over as chairman in November 2021
‘It is completely far-fetched and completely ridiculous,’ the supply mentioned. ‘As a governing physique we might by no means act in that method.’
A 3rd supply added: ‘It is not true, however we’re not going to get into an argument with Lord Patel.’
One among Yorkshire’s 4 responsible pleas sanctioned by Patel regarding the destruction of proof within the Rafiq case has additionally been questioned by quite a few former and present members of employees, who advised Sportsmail earlier this week that digital and paper paperwork had been nonetheless locked away at Headingley in March 2022.
In an announcement issued final month Yorkshire mentioned that ‘a radical impartial investigation established that the deletion and destruction of paperwork date from a time interval previous to the appointment of Lord Patel,’ however modified their story this week by releasing a brand new assertion claiming that the uncover of lacking proof passed off ‘subsequent to the appointment of Lord Patel.’
An ECB spokesperson declined to remark. Lord Patel was unavailable for remark.
