Just like the
Houellebecq novel, the ritual neutralisation of Yorkshire County Cricket Club
continues apace and all the building blocks for Succession now seem to be in
place. In the interests of good
governance, no doubt we shall hear, it is proposed that the Board is replaced
with appointees (who’s likely affiliations and prejudices one need not spell
out). Governance is to be further reinforced by
including a representative of the ECB with, presumably, voting rights and
powers of veto, who will have a difficult job in balancing their new role of
looking after Yorkshire County Cricket Club with their day job responsibilities
for the English game as a whole. You
may, like me, have spotted a tricky conflict of interest here? The new management has helpfully pointed out
that, “members have the ability to overturn any nomination of an independent director
when the appointment is put to members for ratification.” However, how likely is it that the membership,
staring into the abyss of extinction, will not vote for the governance
proposals? Doubtless the management will
make clear that if we don’t agree to everything the ECB and the parliamentary Robespierre,
Julian Knight MP demand, international cricket will be denied to Headingly and,
hence, the financial viability of the Club will be fatally undermined. Slam dunk, perhaps with an impossible choice
at the ballot – submission to a new woke tyranny or surrender to the bailiffs! To those that feel that the survival of YCCC
is worth any sacrifice I would just add, philosophically rather than practically,
that is has been observed that one may take anything one desires out of life but,
at the end of the day, one has to pay.