MEDIA ADVISORY: Cricket Discipline Commission accreditation

CRICKET DISCIPLINE COMMISSION

A Panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), comprising Tim O’Gorman (Chair), Mark Milliken-Smith KC and Dr Seema Patel will, from Wednesday 1 March to Thursday 9 March 2023, hear disciplinary proceedings brought by the England and Wales Cricket Board (the ECB) against Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Gary Ballance, John Blain, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Matthew Hoggard, Richard Pyrah and Michael Vaughan.

This hearing will take place at the International Arbitration Centre, 190 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AG. This hearing will only address issues of liability. Any issues of sanction will be dealt with at a later date.

It should be noted that:

• Yorkshire CCC has admitted liability in response to four amended charges, including a failure to address systemic use of racist and/or discriminatory language over a prolonged period and a failure to take adequate action in respect of allegations of racist and/or discriminatory behaviour. Yorkshire CCC will therefore not be participating in this CDC hearing.
• Gary Ballance has admitted liability in response to the charge against him for his use of racially discriminatory language and will therefore not be participating in this CDC hearing.
• Tim Bresnan, John Blain, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Gale and Richard Pyrah have withdrawn from the proceedings and will not be attending this CDC hearing and therefore the charges against each of them will be heard in their absence.

The CDC Panel has directed that accredited members of the media will have access to view, and be able to report on, a live audio-visual feed of the hearing.

All media accreditation will be administered independently by Sport Resolutions, who are providing Secretariat support to the CDC Panel.

In order for any member of the media to request to attend the hearing, a signed copy of the terms of access document attached must be returned to cricket@sportresolutions.com. Please also provide evidence of published work and details of the outlet on behalf of which you are applying to cover the hearing. Applications must be received by 5pm, Friday February 24, 2023.

Please note that due to capacity restrictions, return of the access document does not guarantee accreditation.

At the direction of the CDC Panel, media attendance at the hearing will be subject to the following protocols:

1. Members of the media with evidence of published work will be allowed to apply for accreditation in advance of the hearing to attend a separate media room at the London hearing venue to watch a live stream of the hearing. This will be the only live stream of the hearing and it will only be available to pre-accredited media. Members of the media will not be permitted access to the hearing room itself.
   
2. On occasion, at the direction of the CDC Panel, the connection between the hearing itself and the media room may be disconnected in the interests of confidentiality and for the CDC Panel to hear evidence or submissions that cannot be disclosed publicly.
3. Members of the media will not be permitted to receive copies of any written representations, submissions, evidence, transcripts or other documents submitted or created during the proceedings.
4. Members of the media will be allowed to report on the hearing as it takes place.
5. No audio-visual, audio or visual recording (including photography) may be taken of the hearing (or any part of the hearing).
6. Media are requested to switch their phones off or onto silent whilst in the media room.

Contravention of any of the above protocols or other directions of the CDC Panel may result in the relevant member(s) of the media and/or their publications being removed from the media room and prevented from having any further access to it, at the CDC Panel’s sole discretion.

Please send any enquiries to cricket@sportresolutions.com. Any enquiries should relate only to Media Accreditation, Sport Resolutions will not be commenting on proceedings.