Former ECB chairman Colin Graves accuses Julian Knight of blocking election to the Yorkshire board

Former ECB chairman Colin Graves accused Conservative MP Julian Knight of interfering in the running of Yorkshire by blocking his election to the Board this summer and ordering the governing body to withdraw their right to present against the Test at Headingley last year.

Yorkshire chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel told a Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee this week that Graves was not allowed to join the Board at Headingley as one of two membership representatives, but did not specify who blocked his return

Graves was surprised by Patel’s claim and told Sportsmail that both the Yorkshire chairman and the acting ECB chairman, Martin Darlow, had assured him that he could stand for election at Headingley. The 74-year-old businessman interviewed for the role last summer in a process led by Yorkshire president Geoff Cope, but was unsuccessful.

Former ECB chairman Colin Graves (left) accused Conservative MP Julian Knight (right) of interfering in the running of Yorkshire by blocking his election to the Board this summer

Graves was angered by Patel’s suggestion that he could not join the Board of a club that owed his family more than £15million. Patel did not return several messages from Graves on the subject over the past few days, while Darlow denied any involvement from the ECB, leading Graves to conclude that any instruction came from Knight, who had a close interest in Yorkshire because of his position. as chairman of the DCMS Committee.

Knight did not chair this week’s Committee hearing on racism in cricket, as he was sacked by the Conservative whip last week after a complaint about him was made to the Metropolitan Police. The 50-year-old has denied any wrongdoing and claims he is being blackmailed.

‘I spoke to Martin Darlow and Kamlesh Patel twice in the summer and they both said I’d be happy to join the Yorkshire Board,’ Graves told Sportsmail. They both said, no problem.

‘This seems to have changed, as Kamlesh told the DCMS Committee that he was told I could not rejoin the Board. Who told him that? It certainly isn’t the ECB.

Graves is pictured with England captain Joe Root after a Test match in Ireland

‘I spoke to Martin Darlow this morning and he assured me that he had given no such instructions, which would have been completely inappropriate. I haven’t heard anything from Kamlesh, despite sending him two text messages and an email, and I want to know who gave him those orders.

‘If it’s not the ECB, then it points to Julian Knight and DCMS. That would be government interference in a national sport with the head of the ECB and Yorkshire, clearly a breach of the regulations.’

Graves claims that Knight meddled in the affairs of the ECB and Yorkshire then by giving them an ultimatum to remove international matches from Headingley to punish the club for their handling of Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations. Yorkshire were stripped of Test matches in November, but regained them after introducing governance reforms, including the election of two new Board members, a position Graves sought but was denied.

‘This has happened before,’ Graves said. ‘I know for a fact that Julian Knight’s office called the ECB on 4th November, 2021, and told them that if Yorkshire was not sanctioned by 6pm that night, the ECB’s government funding would be put on hold. hesitate. The ECB announced that Yorkshire would lose their international matches at around 5pm that day.’The ECB and Knight declined to comment.