Yorkshire apologise to sacked former physiotherapist after reaching out-of-court settlement

Yorkshire have issued a public apology to Wayne Morton, their long-standing physiotherapist, as a part of an out-of-court settlement after he was one in every of 14 individuals sacked in December 2021 on the peak of the membership’s racism disaster.

Morton, 62, was dismissed from his position as head of sports activities science and drugs by the membership’s former chair, Lord Kamlesh Patel, after placing his identify to a joint letter criticising Yorkshire’s dealing with of Azeem Rafiq’s revelations about membership tradition, and accusing Rafiq of being on “a one-man mission to bring down the club”.

The case of Morton’s firm, Pavilion Physiotherapy Clinic Limited, was settled by Yorkshire for an undisclosed payment earlier this week, forward of a scheduled High Court listening to on March 8. This brings closure to a chapter of the membership’s historical past that’s thought to have price them near £3.5 million in authorized charges and severance funds.

“The club can confirm that it has agreed a settlement agreement in respect of the ongoing civil claim brought against the club by Pavilion Physiotherapy Clinic Limited (‘Pavilion’),” Yorkshire stated in an announcement. “Pavilion has received a sum in damages and its legal costs. The amount is confidential between the parties and will not be disclosed.

“The membership apologises to Pavilion, Mr Morton and every other events that will have suffered misery since and on account of the termination of the contract with Pavilion by the membership. The membership acknowledges that Mr Wayne Morton of Pavilion labored with the membership for about 38 years. The membership thanks Mr Morton for his service to the membership and needs him and Pavilion properly for the longer term.”

Writing on Facebook in the wake of the settlement, Morton claimed he had been the victim of “horrendous, scurrilous untruths”, and thanked Colin Graves, the returning chair whose takeover of Yorkshire was ratified earlier this month, for overseeing the end of the legal stand-off.

“Thankfully, the return of somebody with integrity and a real love of Yorkshire cricket has seen the top to this monumental waste of cash,” Morton wrote.

“Sadly, it took over two years and over £400k in authorized charges to finish this nonsense that ought to have been sorted inside weeks of the ending of my contract and the sacking of the employed workers.”

With Graves set to take charge again, Yorkshire have opened nominations for member-nominated directors to join the board, with the club actively seeking to “encourage nominations from members from teams which are at the moment under-represented on the membership or extra broadly throughout the sector”. The process is expected to see two candidates nominated for election to the board at the AGM in April.

“I’m happy to have secured Donovan for the T20 Blast,” Darren Gough, Yorkshire’s managing director of cricket, said. “He is an thrilling addition to the staff, and his all-round talents and constant performances in numerous worldwide franchise leagues are indicators that he has a big profession forward in cricket.

“We hope he will play a big part in Yorkshire’s T20 campaign, and we are looking forward to welcoming him to Headingley.”