Club Chaos
13 October 2020
With a virtual SGM looming in two days time and the scales of justice being purposefully weighted in favour of the MCC Committee SGM Resolution, the final vestiges of democracy will be extinguished at Lord’s. How come?
1) The Resolution “That the changes to the Club Rules as set out in the Appendix are approved and are effective upon the Resolution being passed.”
The SGM Appendix consists of 6 pages of 4,708 words composed of 22,139 characters.
Can any reasonable person be expected to vote on such a Resolution whereby only the Lawyers who drew up such a complex set of interdependant Rule changes can have any understanding whatsoever of the possible implications? What is certain however, is the removal of elected Members from the MCC Committee. The Membership will no longer have any democratic representation in Club affairs.
At Law this SGM Resolution is Wednesbury Unreasonable.Period.
2) NomCo will NOT improve matters, An expensive team of secretaries (Secretariat) costing £2.2 million per annum will remain in place at Lord’s with no delegated executive powers that will remain embedded in the Committee (Rule13) supported by 170+ unelected quasi-executives.
THE ANSWER
Very simply to separate the commercial management and administration of Lord’s Cricket Ground from the day to day management of the MCC Committee who will delegate the necessary executive powers to a well qualified team of professional staff including a Company Secretary, a CEO, a Financial Director, a Commercial Director etc.etc. The Membership should be managed and administered by a Membership Secretary. Only then will the MCC be able to have a profit stream generated by Lord’s Cricket Ground for the Committee to invest and dare I say to begin to reduce the ever increasing subcriptions needed to underwrite the losses of today. QED
Nigel Knott (Dr)
Appointed by MCC Committee to 6 WP’s (1992-2015)
POSTSCRIPT
The commercials at Lord’s are a disgrace. They include the fact the Committee has been negligent in failing to insure Members against loss of business income at Lord’s and making the provision for a return of Member Annual Subscriptions for 2020. The Covid-19 eventuality WAS foreseen by other Sporting Bodies such as the BHA and All England Tennis Club to name but two. What is the purpose of the Club’s Shareholding in an offshore Captive Insurance Company Reigndei Ltd. (Guernsey)**and administered by the ECB, if it cannot provide the necessary insurance cover?
The looming SGM, with the Committee Resolution as the centrepiece, will be held in a virtual environment with voting arrangements that prevent freedom of speech being exercised by Members at the SGM in advance of any voting process taking place. Freedom of speech at any General Meeting is a precious ingredient in any democratic process and cannot lawfully be denied.
In the light of Broadcaster legal action against Cricket Australia, how long will it be before there is legal action in England against the ECB and/or MCC regarding the enormous losses due to business interruption because of inadequate insurance?
This will make uncomfortable reading for those administrators responsible for ensuring that the appropriate risk assessments and insurance cover for those organisations, businesses and clubs, were in place. They themselves might now find themselves to be personally liable for not having the appropriate insurance cover relating to their organization, business or club.
** https://derbyday.mccmembers.co.uk/2020/09/25/the-reigndei-mystery/