Yorkshire must sort issue if Headingley wants internationals

Former county chair Roger Hutton told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee last November that he wanted to remove chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon over their response to a report into allegations of racism raised by former player Azeem Rafiq.

However, Hutton said he was not given consent to do so by the Trust, which is owed a significant amount of money by the club and is linked to the family of former Yorkshire chair Colin Graves.

The committee, which also heard harrowing testimony from Rafiq himself, published its report on cricket’s racism crisis on Friday, urging the England and Wales Cricket Board to “clean up its act” on tackling discrimination or have limits placed on the public funding it receives.

The ECB removed Yorkshire’s right to host lucrative international games at Headingley over the former leadership’s handling of the Rafiq crisis, and DCMS committee chair Julian Knight said despite the impressive work done at Yorkshire by new chair Lord Patel, the role of the Trust had to be properly addressed before those matches could be restored.

“It gives me real pause for thought as to whether or not they’re ready (to host internationals) yet,” Knight told the PA news agency.

“Lord Patel has made great strides but we need to be sure that there is no repetition of a situation where those who need to be removed from senior positions at the club are not removed because of a road block through a Trust.

“I would question whether Yorkshire should get the matches back until that issue is resolved. I think that’s something we are going to explore with them and the ECB when they come in front of us in the coming weeks.

“I would question very closely the position of the Graves Trust within Yorkshire, or whether or not it should continue to have the influence and power that it does.”