Colin Graves

Colin James Graves (born 22 January 1948)^[1] is an English entrepreneur, known for founding the Costcutter chain of convenience stores.

He was raised on a farm near Thorne, South Yorkshire, and attended Goole Grammar School.

Graves founded Costcutter in 1986 and was its chairman until 2012 when he stepped down, following his sale of the company to the Bibby Line Group. Since 2012 he has been executive chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.^[2] He was elected as the deputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board in April 2013.^[3] In 2015 he was elected chairman, to take office following that year's AGM, his term in office to last until the 2020 AGM.^[4]

Early Controversy

In March 2015, shortly before taking his appointment as Chairman of the ECB, Graves caused some controversy by appearing to suggest that Kevin Pietersen (who had been was sacked by England in January 2014 following England's 5-0 defeat by Australia and who had then published a scathing account of his relationship with former coach Andy Flower and certain other team-mates) could regain his England place if he were playing English County Cricket and scoring runs. Graves was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying:

“It is very simple. What happened in the past is history and there is no point talking about it,”

“I was deputy chairman when the decision was made [to sack Pietersen] and I supported it so there is no point pulling that to bits. But if he wants to play for England then he has to play for a county. That is his decision.

“If he does that and then comes out and scores a lot of runs they can’t ignore him I would have thought but that is up to him. You can’t pick someone when he is not playing.”

Subsequently Pietersen seemed to meet all the conditions set for him but on the day he was compiling what would become the 6th highest score at the time in Country Cricket History^[5] he was advised he would not be eligible to play for England that summer after director of cricket Andrew Strauss said there was a "massive trust issue" between the two.^[6]

Pietersen claimed he had been misled by the ECB but upon taking up his appointment Graves issued a statement:

'In the past few days my integrity has been called into question, something I can't accept,'

"Throughout my business career and my years at Yorkshire, integrity has been my watchword. It governs everything I do and is an important part of what I bring to the ECB.

'So it saddens me that what was a private conversation with Kevin in March has been used to do just that.

'Back then, when we talked on the phone, Kevin asked if I thought his England career had ended in the right manner following the last Ashes series in Australia. I agreed that nobody particularly emerged with much credit from the whole episode, particularly given his achievements for England.

'Kevin felt he had a lot to offer and was interested in a dialogue with the ECB, sorting things out and working together. He would love to play for England again but he wanted to contribute, whether as a player or not.

'I didn't make any promises. There were no guarantees that if he chose to exit his IPL contract, play County cricket and score runs he would be selected for England. And I said he should make any decision on his future on that basis.

'I can see something has been misunderstood around the conversation and in the following debate - and perhaps how that happened.'

Graves went on to support Strauss and cite the inflammatory autobiography released by Pietersen last October as the key reason why there were still 'trust issues' between the batsman and the ECB and even suggested the door wasn't closed on a reconciliation at some point in the future.^[7]

References