Richard Sykes to resign as Middlesex chair following pressure from former players

Richard Sykes is set to resign as chair of Middlesex in the latest change of leadership at the beleaguered county club.

The Guardian has learned that Sykes has told the board of his decision to quit after three years as chair, with members to be informed later this week, after repeated calls from ex-players led by the former Middlesex and England captain Mike Gatting for him to stand down.

Sykes’ impending departure will follow that of Andrew Cornish, who was dismissed as chief executive in June after the club received a complaint about his alleged behaviour from a fellow member of staff, which he denies.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) cricket disciplinary committee is understood to have upheld misconduct charges brought against Cornish, but he has launched an appeal so the decision has yet to be made public.

Since Cornish was dismissed Middlesex have been led by an interim chief executive, Julie Harrington, who has accepted Sykes’ resignation and will lead the search for his replacement.

Sykes’ exit is not related to the allegations made against Cornish or the club’s handling of the complaint, but follows repeated criticism from members and former players about his leadership.

On the eve of the county season in April, a group of distinguished Middlesex veterans including Gatting, the former West Indies batter Desmond Haynes and the ex-England internationals Mark Ramprakash, John Emburey, Mike Selvey and Clive Radley wrote an open letter in which they condemned the club as “structurally a mess, is devoid of accountability and lacks proper checks and balances”.

The players called on Sykes to resign at the club’s AGM later that month, but he refused to go despite the former players’ complaint that “the club has been poorly led for too long”.

Middlesex have endured another largely disappointing season on the field in which they failed to win promotion from Division Two of the County Championship for the third successive year, although they have reached the final of the One-Day Cup and could win their first trophy for 10 years against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge on Sunday.

Since being appointed to replace Cornish on a temporary basis in July, Harrington, a former chief executive of British Cycling and the British Horseracing Authority, has commissioned two independent reviews of the club’s governance, with Sykes accepting that the club requires fresh leadership.

In another significant change Middlesex confirmed this month that the director of cricket, Alan Coleman, is leaving after five years at the end of the season.

In addition to longstanding financial problems caused by a long-term tenancy at Lord’s that places severe limitations on their ability to generate revenue, Middlesex have also experienced a number of governance and disciplinary issues in recent years.

In September 2023 the club were given a suspended points deduction, fined £50,000 and placed in special measures by the ECB after being found to have breached financial regulations, including the misuse of central funding. The former chief executive Richard Goatley is also suing the club for more than £1m in a personal injury lawsuit, while Cornish could also take legal action for constructive dismissal.

Under Sykes and Cornish the club attempted to bring in £20m of external funding from a US group to help build a new ground in west London to provide an additional venue to Lord’s, but the ECB ruled that third-party investment would constitute a breach of the county partnership agreement and jeopardise their central funding.

Middlesex declined to comment.