Yorkshire cleared by Cricket Regulator over £1.75m payment to chief executive’s firm
Yorkshire were cleared by the Cricket Regulator on Thursday at a members’ forum in Scarborough after a formal investigation into a £1.75m payment to a company controlled by the club’s chief executive, Sanjay Patel, a decision confirmed by chair Colin Graves in an email to supporters on Friday.
The inquiry followed reporting in June that the England and Wales Cricket Board had been reviewing a consultancy fee linked to the sale of the Northern Superchargers, with the matter subsequently referred to the Cricket Regulator. Yorkshire’s 2025 accounts recorded that Patel’s company, SMP73 Ltd, received a commission of £1.75m for “corporate broker services in connection with the sale of Northern Superchargers Limited”, a figure that prompted concern at Lord’s about the amount of money leaving the game and a possible conflict of interest.
Graves told members the regulator had completed a formal probe and found the club’s governance and decision-making processes satisfactory. He wrote: “The Cricket Regulator completed a thorough investigation and has concluded that payments were made through satisfactory governance processes and decision-making structures and there is no further action required,” and added, “This matter is now closed.”
The ECB is understood to remain unimpressed by the size of Patel’s consultancy fee, particularly given the governing body engaged the US bank Raine Group to find investors for the eight franchises and run the auction process. The Hundred sales raised £520m for the sport through selling stakes of between 49% and 100% to external investors, with Raine receiving about £12m in commission; the consultancy fee to SMP73 related to a separate payment tied to the £100m sale of the Superchargers to the Sun Group last year.
A source with knowledge of the Cricket Regulator’s investigation said the case was dropped because there was no evidence that Yorkshire’s actions breached ECB regulations. The source noted SMP73’s work on the sale concluded before Patel’s formal appointment as chief executive in October 2025; Patel was, however, heavily involved at Yorkshire before and during the Hundred auction in February 2025 after being appointed interim chief executive in September 2024.
Yorkshire were the only county to sell 100% of their Hundred franchise, while most host counties opted to retain a 51% stake, a decision cited as a possible factor in the size of SMP73’s consultancy fee. Before joining Yorkshire, Patel was one of the key architects of the Hundred when working alongside Graves, the then ECB chair, and was among a small group of executives who received bonuses worth a combined £2.1m from the governing body in 2022.
Graves explained the board’s rationale for engaging Patel through SMP73, writing: “As I explained to members yesterday, the Board engaged Sanjay, through SMP73, because of his unrivalled knowledge of The Hundred and network across cricket. We agreed a performance-related commission which would only become payable if he secured an outcome for the club in excess of an ambitious target set in relation to the sale of the Northern Superchargers. That target was exceeded, securing a transformational return for Yorkshire which enabled us to clear the club’s significant debt and put Yorkshire on a much stronger financial footing.”
Graves’ email to members closes the matter at club level and the ECB declined to comment.