Four weeks ago, I knew nothing of cricket in France.
Today I feel like I’m a character in their own special version of Game of Thrones.
It all started when the governing body, France Cricket, asked me quite innocently if I’d write a piece to help raise their profile.
I informed them that it would be satirical and they agreed.
Read the comments.
They scream of the great passion those involved with France Cricket have for their sport and country.
I was welcomed into the France Cricket Facebook discussion group following that article.
I chatted with some of the more vocal dissenters in regards to my piece. After they realised what it was and its purpose, we had a laugh and moved on.
They are good guys.
They are passionate.
They are cricket lovers.
Many didn’t agree with France Cricket’s decision to ask me to write it (unpaid mind you). They wanted something a little more serious, but you can’t please everyone all of the time.
One of the more interesting chaps, and the guy who runs that Facebook group, is a bloke named Rory Paul.
An Englishman who qualified to play for France after living there for the requisite amount of time.
Rory has recently used the website of the All Out Cricket magazine to make a number of claims against France Cricket.
These are found amongst the meandering rants both in this article and its follow up piece here.
Please read them before going any further in this piece as they provide context for what you are about to read next.
They are not that long.
See you back in here in 5…….
[WAITS PATIENTLY FOR YOU TO RETURN]
So, how did you go?
Interesting pieces.
Let’s crack in.
The main claims as I can ascertain are that:
1) Two France Cricket Board members flew to Melbourne for an ICC conference that they then didn’t attend;
2) That the President flew back from Melbourne to France via India for a holiday, inappropriately using France Cricket funds; and
3) That meeting minutes have been doctored to show that the board approved flights for the Treasurer to attend. The allegation being that the flights were not approved and the board minutes have been altered.
I got curious.
What if these claims are true?
These are bold claims and Rory states that he has evidence to prove them as true. He claims to me that multiple lawyers, including a barrister and All Out Cricket, have checked the evidence.
Rory and I had a few exchanges. This one was on the France Cricket Facebook group page (that he has now locked me out of for asking questions of his pieces):
Rory, despite numerous attempts to persuade him, has declined to publish his evidence.
I felt it unjustified that he went public with serious allegations, yet wouldn’t stump up any supporting proof.
This was even after I explained to him that I had obtained documents that I believe contradict his allegations.
Things kinda blew up on his end after a while. He blocked me from the France Cricket Facebook group page, and then this on twitter:
In many other exchanges, Rory claims that if France Cricket believe what he is saying is untrue, then they should sue him.
That’s one strategy to defend your position I guess?
Let’s go through these three more serious allegations one by one.
In 72 hours of digging, here is what I found:
Allegation 1:
Two France Cricket Board members flew to Melbourne for an ICC conference that they then didn’t attend
Rory alleges:
However, the major flaw with the argument that Mr Balane and Mr Thiyagarajan made good use of their time in Australia is that neither one of the men managed to drag themselves to a single meeting during their time down under.
Below is an ICC letter dated well before Rory Paul’s allegations were published showing that the French Delegates did in fact attend the conference.
How much of it and what exact days, it’s not clear.
Did they attend the two quite specific sessions that Rory Paul thinks they should of, notably:
European Associates and Affiliates meetings 23/06/2014 at 14:30
European Associates and Giles Clarke 26/06/2014 at 09:00
I don’t know.
Make up your own mind about the value of spending time with Giles Clarke.
Did the delegates participate in enough of the conference to be issued a letter from the ICC confirming attendance?
Clearly they did.
Why else would the ICC release this letter prior to any allegations of impropriety?
I have spoken to another person who attended that same conference and asked if it would be normal for a delegate to attend all sessions.
The reply was an emphatic ‘no’.
Given this, I am not sure why has Rory made such a racket about this particular issue, as there doesn’t appear to be one.
Allegation 2:
That the President flew back from Melbourne to France via India for a holiday, inappropriately using France Cricket funds
I find the second charge of the President flying back via India a little bizarre.
Rory claims:
More sinisterly, Mr Balane returned to France via his summer holiday in India, and it is alleged by members of the France Cricket board that the flights from Australia to India, and India to France, were paid for by the organisation. Something which, if true, is deeply troubling.
Firstly, here is a world map.
If the President wanted to travel back via India, why not?
It’s on the way!
Many would fly to Europe via the route: Melbourne – Singapore – India (any number of destination cities) – Europe (any number of destination cities)
You could substitute Singapore for Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. If you didn’t want to stop in India, you could go via Dubai.
I’ve done them all over the years.
They all cost kinda the same amount.
I don’t see why this is an issue, unless France Cricket paid for his Indian hotels and expenses.
This claim hasn’t been made by Rory.
However, I’m not even sure what Rory is trying to say?
Is it that France Cricket shouldn’t have flown the President home at all? That the tickets to Australia should only be a one way fare?
Allegation 3:
The Treasurer’s Flights
I quote Rory Paul from his first piece on All Out Cricket:
It has been privately claimed by the president that the treasurer paid for his own flights, although typically no evidence of this has been seen. There is suspicion at board level that this particular statement by Mr Balane makes Bill Clinton’s claims about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky look credible by comparison!
Let’s park the fact that Rory hasn’t produced one shred of evidence himself to back up his own claims against France Cricket.
Oh, the irony.
Rory goes on to say in his subsequent piece:
The important statement in the minutes claims that there was a general understanding that Pretheve Thiyagarajan would pay his own way to Australia, and he would accompany the ICC-sponsored president. This aspect of the minutes, if true, would completely disprove the allegations made in my article. It would require a complete and immediate retraction of my statements because, if the treasurer paid his own way to Australia, then there is no financial case to answer.
Now, I can’t comment on the claims about funny business with the minutes. I haven’t seen anything that helps me form a view one way or another. But, if the Treasurer paid his own way, then I don’t see what Rory is complaining about?
To make this one short, here are the Treasurer’s personal booking of his flights.
Here is where he paid the travel agent from his personal AMEX card:
Here is his hotel bill at the Hilton that clearly shows a charge of AUD$1196.00
Finally, here is where the Hilton bill matches his AMEX statement:
Given this, I find it difficult to accept that anything improper has happened.
Perhaps Rory will immediately retract his allegation as he says he will do?
Rory is currently suspended by France Cricket.
He has not avoided this fact.
He claims in his All Out Cricket article that it was because he privately questioned the board on their ambitious plans to qualify for the T20 World Cup.
However, these Board minutes tell a more complete story
Here are the minutes of the France Cricket Board meeting that reference ‘inappropriate conduct’ from the 30th August 2014:
I am led to believe the charge exists because he racially vilified the members of the board via messaging as per below:
I am told that the sledge ‘Foreign Born’ is quite offensive in France.
Who am I to judge?
I am also lead to believe Rory was given ample opportunity to apologise and have his suspension lifted.
He has chosen not to do so.
I have chosen to publish this information about Rory’s alleged misdemeanors as it adds flavour to his potential motives.
All Out Cricket ran with the articles and even discussed it on one of their podcasts.
When asked whether they had vetted the story, Jo Harman of All Out Cricket has tweeted this:
That leads to me believe that All Out Cricket have cited evidence that contradicts what I have produced here.
To be very clear, I have no reason to believe that All Out Cricket have acted unprofessionally or improperly in this matter.
However, why has Rory Paul declined to substantiate his allegations with the proof?
He clearly has something to back his claims else the article wouldn’t have been published.
So, in Rory’s words:
“No more dick swinging. Just publish it.”
I just showed mine.
Time to see his perhaps?
Alternatively, one could reasonably conclude that Rory’s claims are vexatious against France Cricket due to his suspension?
What do you guys think?
Please leave a comment or two 🙂Follow @denniscricket_
So TCCB , SABC & ACB Begat Imperial Cricket Council 1909 ,
Begat the International Cricket Conference in 1965 with the current incarnation the International Cricket Council happening in 1989, the more things change , the more they stay the same.
Now you tell us about Cricket in France , we could remove France and replace with , Kenya, Uganda, Zimbarbwe, USA, BCCI, PCB, WICB, CA, ECB etc, etc ,etc. And you could change Cricket to Soccer and we still have the same problems, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
I think you have proven this very succinctly and I am fully on your side. Seems like Mr Rory is a bit butthurt
I don’t have ‘a side’. I just want to see evidence behind Rory Paul’s allegations. He still hasn’t shown any and has locked out all mentions of this piece of the France Cricket FaceBook page group.
No he hasn’t Dennis. He’s published it on the site and explained to people that you have labelled him a racist. He has also expalined that he isn’t a racist but merely expressed in a private e-mail message that he didn’t think that showing images of people dressed in Kenyan, New Zealand and Mumbai Indians cricket kits was a good way to promote cricket in France, when pictures were available of the national team playing in ICC compétitions , and having a team photo taken with the French flag.
You however fail to address his accusation that the CD of France Cricket failed to sanction a player who was the selectors’ nephew for suggesting publicly on Facebook that Hitler would have been useful at sorting out the Middle East crisis. Only one racist act in this whole affair as far as I can see.
You sure the President of France Cricket isn’t making a contribution to your site, mate ?
He published it after I asked him why he had blocked discussion about it, but it’s there and I am still blocked.
I didn’t call him racist at all. Please read that piece of the article carefully.
I find it ironic that Rory would care what anyone calls him given he has accused others of fraud without backing up those accusations. Relying on a French speaking AOC editor to be the arbiter of fact is also ironic, given Rory claims he is only answerable to the courts.
I couldn’t find enough stuff on the matter that wasn’t just gossip so I chose not to print it.
Thanks for contributing.
Dennis,
You clearly do call him a racist. To quote you from above in your article you say :
“I am led to believe the charge exists because he racially vilified the members of the board”
Those charges are unfounded as explained in my post of 3 hours ago, which you will see below.
You still didn’t answr my question as to whether when France Cricket eventually publishes some accounts we may see that there are payments to your site ?
Because if you are getting involved in this purely from a point of view of Investigative Jounalism , I would suggest you make a swift carer change. You seem not to be able to smell a rotting fish even when it is waved Under your nose. And there is a bin full of those in the offices of those feeding you this bull at France Cricket
Please don’t twist my words. I reported that FC have interpreted Rory’s words as racist.
Quote:
“I am told that the sledge ‘Foreign Born’ is quite offensive in France.
Who am I to judge?”
If you can get the FC financials, please share them with me. If they have paid me, I am yet to see anything in my bank account. I believe I have already stated on 3 occasions I have not been paid.
Finally, I am not an investigative journalist. Just a bloke making observations who made a few phone calls.
So being you’re presumably not classing yourself as a “shit bloke” where is your evidence he is a racist other than the lines you’re being fed by your cronies ? He just said it wasn’t a good advertisement for France Cricket to portray themselves as “Foreign Born Amateurs” . Which would be good advice for any national team. Would you like the Ausies to turn up for the World Cup dressed in a cocktail of shirts from other nations ? I assume you have pride in the Green & Gold ?
That’s all his comment means….get behind the shirt. You get that, don’t you ?
You do seem to have called him a racist. Quoting from your article above :
“I am led to believe the charge exists because he racially vilified the members of the board”
And Amid’s post above explains that he isn’t a racist ; he is just promoting pride in the French national team.
Are you really saying France Cricket aren’t paying you for this stuff ? If you are acting as an investigative jouralist here, my friend, your sense of smell seems to be off…
Very easy for Asian guys to throw the racist card at a white guy, and I’m entitled to say that. What the hell were those 2 doing in Australia without going to any of the right meetings ? Wake up , Dennis ! Or are you already on the Inside track, my friend ?
Your first two paragraphs contradict themselves.
No. When you write that somebody “racially villified” members of the France Cricket board you are calling him a racist.
And to be fair to him he has even published what you wrote on his site to let people see it and make up their own minds.
You are fast disappearing up your own backside with these arguments
Do you say he’s a racist , or not ?
And if you say “not sure” retract it
The premise of your argument makes no sense.
Also, I can’t see what is on Rory’s site. I’m blocked.
The premise of your argument makes no sense.
Also, I can’t see what is on Rory’s site. I’m blocked. Very mature.
Hey guys he said that he has not been paid by FC if you have doubt contact France cricket administration
You said they don’t attend any meeting there we have a problem bcz at this moment you suggest that ICC lies
Sorry Amid,
I didn’t see any status about dennis blog.
I completely disagree ; this thing stinks to Hell, and Dennis’ investigative journalism skills are even worse than his sense of parody…
Why do you think the ICC wrote a “To Whom It May Concern” mail in August to these 2 jokers ? Because they had been rumbled by others at France Cricket and were trying to ask for some justification that they had actually been in Australia. You think that Giles Clarke needed one of those to justify to the ECB ?? And they admit they didn’t go to key meetings
And just because somebody puts an air ticket on his persoanl credit card it doesn’t mean he can’t expense that later. Especialy if he is the Treasurer of the organisation he is expensing.
Wake up you Muppets
Maybe the expenses were reimbursed? I have no evidence of that. Does Rory, or is this just more unfounded gossip?
I don’t care what the facts are, as long as we deal in those facts. It is a shit bloke who publicly slanders people with allegations of fraud and doesn’t provide evidence.
Rory may be 100% accurate in everything he says. Prove it. The ball is in his court as the accuser.
In what Western Society is the burden of proof with the accused?
So being you’re presumably not classing yourself as a “shit bloke” where is your evidence he is a racist other than the lines you’re being fed by your cronies ? He just said it wasn’t a good advertisement for France Cricket to portay themselves as Foreign Born Amateurs . Which would be good advice for any national team. Would you like the Ausies to turn up for the World Cup dressed in a cocktail of shirts from other nations ? I assume you have pride in the Green & Gold ?
That’s all his comment means….get behind the shirt. You get that, don’t you ?
It’s not how you or I interpret Rory’s comments. It’s how the person they were sent to interpreted them. It’s a simple concept to understand.
So being you’re presumably not classing yourself as a “shit bloke” where is your evidence he is a racist other than the lines you’re being fed by your cronies ? He just said it wasn’t a good advertisement for France Cricket to portray themselves as “Foreign Born Amateurs” . Which would be good advice for any national team. Would you like the Ausies to turn up for the World Cup dressed in a cocktail of shirts from other nations ? I assume you have pride in the Green & Gold ?
That’s all his comment means….get behind the shirt. You get that, don’t you ?
So being you’re presumably not classing yourself as a “shit bloke” where is your evidence he is a racist other than the lines you’re being fed by your cronies ? He just said it wasn’t a good advertisement for France Cricket to portray themselves as “Foreign Born Amateurs” . Which would be good advice for any national team. Would you like the Ausies to turn up for the World Cup dressed in a cocktail of shirts from other nations ? I assume you have pride in the Green & Gold ?
That’s all his comment means….get behind the shirt. You get that, don’t you ?
Amid, you are calling ” 2 jokers” FC’s president and treasurer
you are very insulting Amid
Hi Dennis! I have read your’ blog. That these two gentlemen went to Australia is not in dispute; but still,no evidence has been produced that they attended any of the meetings. Where is the write-up from the president about what was discussed, so information can be given to the clubs in France?
And of course, there is an airline and hotel bill, If the Treasurer paid for these himself, then that is good. But we still have to see evidence that he was not re-imbursed by FC. If he went in a private capacity, why do ICC say he is an official representative?THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO SEE THE ACCOUNTS.
Agree 100%. I’ve published what I could find to support / counter Rory’s allegations.
However, as the accuser, the burden of proof lies with him.
As a friend of Rory’s (and therefore potentially biased), I want to query a couple of things with this (not suggesting that anything Dennis has said is wrong, merely that it doesn’t necessarily contradict Rory’s comments).
Firstly, is it not possible to say that delegates attended a conference without attending any of the actual meetings? By this I mean that the delegates are seen to be present (for example if all of the delegates are in the same hotel, or if there are any group photos etc) but do not then attend the talks being given. I’m not saying that this is the case (I have no evidence either way) but if this were the case, then Rory’s claims that the delegates failed to attend the meetings would not be disproved by the ICC’s letter that they were at the conference.
Secondly, and again this is only a suggestion not an allegation, but do some organisations not work by reimbursing people? If France Cricket work this way, then the delegates would have paid their expenses first and subsequently reclaimed them. Once again, this is only a suggestion, but if true it would mean that Rory’s arguments are not disproved by the evidence presented here.
I agree with Dennis’ point that Rory’s reluctance to reveal his evidence means that there is room for counter-arguments but (possibly naively) am willing to assume that All Out Cricket must have seen some supporting documents to allow Rory to write two potentially libelous articles. I don’t agree that Rory ought to reveal his evidence to everyone (as it is not relevant to everyone), though it should perhaps be shown to the members of France Cricket and the ICC.
Again, I am biased and am attempting to support a friend, and have not seen any evidence to support either view, so am not presenting any of these suggestions as fact, merely saying that the evidence presented here does not necessarily disprove Rory’s arguments.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for declaring your conflict.
Your comments are fair. I feel given what has been produced, my comments are also fair.
I am no judge. However, I have seem nothing to support Rory’s claims apart from heresay and a reliance on an AOC’s editors judgement. The fact Rory was asked to edit his piece 3 times before publishing tells me AOC knew this was on the edge.
I am also aware of another news organisation that failed to run his piece as they deemed the piece full of allegations unable to be substantiated.
I’m curious if Amid and Hassan have the same bloke behind running these aliases as the ones under the same names that pinged the France Cricket official Facebook Page?
Can Mark Moodley shed some light?
Why would you know about people pinging and being blocked from the France Cricket official Facebook Page if you weren’t in the pockets of the people being accused at France Cricket, Dennis ? You seem to know loads of stuff about what goes on at FC….but claim to be a nice independent guy.
Stinks quite a bit doesn’t it, sport ?
Far from it.
There is abuse hurled at me by people in these comments.
I have simply asked people at France Cricket who they are.
Then I’m told ‘Amid and Hassan’ have a history of trolling.
Simple.
Just been asking questions of France Cricket as a paid up memeber of a club , and been blocked on their site when asking reasonable questions. Like where are the accounts ?
So in fact if I’m a troll , you seem to be making your living out of it , matey.
And I guess you don’t even pay your subs to France Cricket….
So don’t try to take the moral high ground with me, sonny
Why would I pay subs to FC?
If they blocked you for asking reasonable questions in a reasonable way, that’s poor.
If they blocked you for using an alias, that’s another matter.
I’m not using an alias. They blocked me for asking questions they didn’t want to answer despite launching a long speech about wanting to invite all questions about the affair which the AOC article publicised.
So they publcly want to say “we have nothing to hide” and privately just delete and block anybody asking a difficult question.
When I realised that they were doing that it convinced me they were hiding something, which is why I’m not shutting up about this.
And your article of 19/11 makes me even more convinced ; you didn’t just produce that out of a hat. They fed you stuff to write it , and the “Who it concerns” letter is so damn bizarre that you are no journalist to have accepted that without asking “why does this even exist ?”.
If they’re not paying you, you should be circulating your CV for another job, my friend
I asked for info and was given it. My piece is far from definitive as is clearly seen by me questioning many elements of the information I have published. It was a response written with 72 hours of work.
If you want the full truth, have Rory pass his evidence of fraud to the police.
Amid
Chill out dude.
Don’t get your knickers in a knot. And stop watching conspiracy movies….
Dennis, keep up the good work.
If you think that article is good work, JimmyT , you want to get out more
If there weren’t two sides, there wouldn’t be an argument.
Rory has yet to prove his claims by providing documentation,
France Cricket (FC) have yet to prove their claims by providing documentation.
Rory’s documentation has been privately obtained, and is therefor his property, until he decides to make it public knowledge.
FC’s documentation should be in the public domain (or at least available to affiliated
members of FC, who are potentially paying for all this). It isn’t, and this secrecy is worrying. If FC showed some accounts backing their position then a lot of this problem/furor would go away; so why won’t they publish what should already be known?
I would assume that FC would publish financials for an Annual General Meeting once a year, where members can ask questions and vote out people if they don’t like the answers.
Standard practice.
Rory has accused people of fraud without sharing evidence. Not normal practice.
Why won’t Rory publish? The excuse of not revealing sources doesn’t cut it. We all know the only sources are ultimately the FC board. Rory is aligned with two of them that I am aware of.
There is no source to protect.
I do not know Rory even though I have heard about him and have followed the saga over the last weeks and even before that.
I do know the France Cricket board a little and have major doubts about the way they are running cricket in this country.
This whole sorry mess could be easily solved by either Rory or the FC board posting details and proof that would counter the other party.
Dennis, I understand your motives and respect them but there is one very important thing that you have to understand – French and European law is different from European law. I can imagine that the moment FC issued their writ against Rory that his lawyers advised him (quite rightly) to not provide his sources and proof at this stage. This is the way things happen over here and I have a legal background.
However, if France Cricket wanted to bring this mess to an end they could issue a statement in French and English where they state quite clearly that the treasurer paid for his own flight, meals and accomodation and that he did not receive this reimbursed.
They should also state that this money was never reimbursed. This information should then be provided in written form with open bank statements and accounts to the members of FC (not to social media and non-members).
I have heard from other sources that the two FC board members were at the ICC meeting but only appeared at a few of the meetings, missing some of the important ones. Again, a quick statement to this effect from FC could solve the issue quickly and painlessly as missing a meeting or two is hardly a reason to bring down a board.
There are, in my opinion, more important questions that FC need to answer to help us all trust in them again:
1. What is happening with youth development?
2. Is it true that women’s development has been scrapped?
3. Why was Mark Moodley fired? The man who had done so much to build French cricket up.
4. Why is FC only interested in Paris?
5. What is the vision?
We can clearly see in the writing style, sentence structure and word usage that Amid & Hassan are either the same person or siblings.
It appears that some important votes have gone against Rory at today’s board meeting that now indicate his claims about doctored votes are false.
So the FC board have voted that the claims against the FC board are false.
Great! That clears that up then.
So much speculation and still Rory refuses to show his ‘proof’.
Was the treasurer reimbursed?
If so, who signed it off?
Did that person have the authority to sign it off?
Hello everyone,
I Am English, I live in France since 6 months.
I read all your reactions and it is timethat I share my point of view.
I have a passion for cricket and I often look at the results of the matches on AOC
A few weeks ago, I chanced upon the article Rory Gribbell talking about corruption in France cricket.
His allegations accusing the Governing Board and one of their employees
I recognize to have read the article very carefully, but I was surprised not to see any evidence face these serious allegations.
A few days later, I read the right of reply formulated by France Cricket.
With my low level of French, I did not understand their message. I asked my French friend to help me
to translate.
I wanted to know more about France Cricket. I went on their website and on their social networks (Facebook and Twitter).
As soon as I clicked on the Facebook link, I was redirected to a group called “France Cricket”.
I started to read the discussions on this story. Clearly, two different opinions emerged.
1- Rory supporting its allegations
2- Denis requesting evidence to Rory
Rory did not appreciate that Denis asked the evidence. To eject him, Rory blocked his access
to the group.
Moreover, Dennis replied to this on the AOC website, saying, “As you have decided to block me, I even myself seek evidence. I cannot have one version, I need evidence to understand the story.
Natural reaction for a journalist. And in the law, the person who accuses
must provide evidence.
Like a real journalist Denis found evidence that contradicts the
allegations of Rory.
Rory has to prove otherwise by providing evidence.
Now, Dennis has evidence that said the opposite of what Rory said. It is very simple, in journalism, no evidence, the allegations have no legal value.
It is very simple, in journalism, no evidence,the allegations have no legal value.
I think Rory hides something. Maybe he has documents that were given to him by some members of the Governing Board he wants to protect.
On the other hand, he has nothing convincing to prove his allegations.
In the two cases, it is in a very bad position.
If there is a trial, Rory has to say who and how he obtained the documents
Rory will be even more in trouble if his evidence cannot establish corruption.
Do not forget that Rory talks about corruption allegations.
Corruption is the criminal law. Before the court, it must provide convincing evidence.
I do not know Rory nor Denis, even less France Cricket. I present just the facts I have observed
since this story.
I say thank you Denis, you have done a good job of journalist.
It is not the case of Rory, his allegations are without proof.
Rory, we expect all the evidence.
Hi Dennis
For some reason the board of France Cricket have decided to
defend themselves by using a blogger from the other side of the world!
I am unaware of the intricacies of the Australian education
system, but I am presuming that there was no reason for you to be taught French
at school, and therefore your communication with them is in English; if I am
wrong, I apologise.
However, they are refusing to answer my emails, letters or
facebook posts. As you seem to have the inside track, I wonder if you could ask
them to respond to my questions, which I repeat below:
1. Can the Comité Directeur (CD) confirm that no France Cricket funds have been used in the current litigation against Mr. Gribbell ?
. If they were, where are the minutes and vote from that meeting?
2. Can the CD confirm that no France Cricket funds were used for the President’s and Treasurer’s trip to the ICC conference in Australia ?
3. I can find no report back from the President about what was discussed and/or decided at that conference; if such a document exists can you find out where it is, please?
4. Apparently there was a meeting between the CD and their accountant on November 4th at which the budget for the rest of the year was decided. We were told that these figures would be available for scrutiny after that date at the offices of France Cricket. For me to go there would involve a trip of 900 kilometres. Are the CD prepared to make
an electronic copy of these figures to the member clubs
I am the President of an affiliated club of France Cricket, and I, and other clubs, are extremely worried about the lack of information, bordering on secrecy, about the financial goings-on at France Cricket. They obviously have electronic equipment at their offices (or did they post their evidence to you?) so could they use it please?
They are all questions for an Annual General Meeting or and Extraordinary General Meeting should you be able to get one up.
All I wanted to do with this piece is show that evidence beats no evidence.
I don’t know what the truth is, except to say that Rory’s claims at this stage are just rants. They have nothing to back then up.
Dennis – that is a real cop-out. Are France Cricket enjoying this notariety? Why can’t they just say “No – he paid for himself” and show the proof: it doesn’t want to drag on any longer than it needs to. And wait for next year before we hear what went on the ICC conference? Are you serious? And they said we could see the budget after Nov 4th, not wait for the AGM. So if you’d care to read ALL my questioons, then forward them to your friends at France Cricket. Thanks.
How FC reply is up to them. I am not their spokesperson or a go between. I have only spoken to FC board members twice. Both times, the questions were 1 sentence long via Twitter DM. I have almost zero relationship with them. The assumption everyone seems to be making is that I am some inside man. This is incorrect. I just asked the right people the right questions to get some info. It wasn’t hard.
G’day Jerry, what a laugh, sorry mate, but you are not English, otherwise your sentence structure and word choice would be a lot different. FAIL. SO if you’re not honest about your nationality , what else are you lying about?
Don’t make fun my dear.
I’m really English, but I have not had chance to go to school.
I wanted just to say what I think about versions of the two journalists
Sure Jerry, whatevs.
Bonsoir Michel
Firsly, if the teacher say your child was present in class, you trust him. You don’t analyse that if he attempt full day or miss one hour. If ICC say they was present that mean the was.
Secondly
If France cricket board decide in future to rembuirse Pretheve as you suggest. FC have a commission to decide if they reimbursing or not.
lastly
I say the same thing that Rory should to reveal his evidence to FC and not in web but you can verified in France Cricket group that it’s Rory who ask publicly Pretheve to reveal his bank account details in Facebook.
Sorry for my orthographe
I do my best in English
Allegation 1, you proved what was known, they went to Melbourne. You in no way prove they attended the meetings for Associate members. Rory claims to have proof they did not. They have not refuted this.
Allegation 2 you proved you need a travel agent: PAR – MEL then SYD – PAR in June 2015 costs $1041 USD right now. Using the same dates as they used but in 2015. Returning with a break in Chennai costs $1912. Great use of funds, either the ICC’s or FCs.
Allegation 3: You have shown that a payment was made to a travel agent. Wow, well done super sleuth. It could be for an entirely different trip. When I was active in FC, I paid my travel costs, submitted receipts to the treasurer, and was reimbursed at a later date. You have not shown that FC did not reimburse the treasurer. This can only be done by scrutinising the association’s bank statements, on the original documents. I imagine this will be requested at the next AGM, or an EGM if members don’t want to wait until March.
On the reasons for Rory’s suspension: You have reiterated what you were told by an interested party, to whit the FC board. Rory’s comments, as one can see, were made using Facebook Messenger, a form of private communication. The content of the message is largely correct. The board are mostly amateurs (even more so since they sacked one of their few paid employees, namely Mark Moodley) and are mainly foreign-born. Hardly racist vilification. I have it that neither of the two recipients felt racially vilified. The minutes you print do nothing at all to explain the motive for Rory’s suspension.
Rory probably does have an axe to grind, given that he has been suspended for doing nothing wrong, whilst a team mate gets away with potentially criminal comments (under French law, low-level anti-semitism is punishable by a six-month prison sentence and up 22,500 euro fine). Comments that will no doubt do wonders for the “spirit of cricket” when France next play Israel.
As Rory is now being sued for libel, he would have been advised to keep his proof for an ensuing legal action, should the French police decide it is worthy of pursuing. I doubt they will, as the publisher is normally the recipient of a writ, as they are the ones who published it in the public domain. I would expect that the publisher asked for proof and got it, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone ahead with it.
Give up on investigative journalism, or anything that requires analysis, and stick to the not-very-funny-satire; it appears to suit you.
Unfortunately people are missing the point by a fair way. There are some suggesting I’m some investigative journalist who is burdened with the obligation to mount a case for France Cricket.
This is not the case.
I spent 72 hours of my own time gathering what I could to show the absurdity of Rory choosing not to publish his evidence as he hides behind the ‘I dont want to reveal my sources’ line.
In his words, it’s either ‘Spineless’ or incompetent.
I was able to find documents and publish them with no links to sources. Why can’t he?
My role is not to defend French Cricket or Rory. I have chosen to highlight only that Rory’s case (whether he is right or wrong) is at the moment just a passionate rant given he won’t stump up.
PS. Libel is not a criminal case. It’s civil. Police won’t be involved
I would suggest that your only obligation is for yourself and your profession, to write a coherent piece that makes some sort of point. The only point you make is that you have little understanding of French law, associative responsibilities, and how to write a decent article. You hide your lack of knowledge and either your lack of desire or ability to acquire any behind your titles. All i can see you doing is damaging your credibility. It really shouldn’t have taken 72 hours to work out why he won’t give up his sources, the reasons for not doing so are perfectly plausible.
What happened to my reply about libel being a criminal case in France?
Is French law another area of your expertise, Dennis? Clearly not.
Libel is covered by article 32 of the French “Code Penal” in the Loi du 29 juillet 1881 sur la liberté de la presse (http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do;jsessionid=C0C81A72D37EFD7E06D6DDA542740FB0.tpdjo04v_2?idSectionTA=LEGISCTA000006089707&cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000877119&dateTexte=20141127) and its subsequent amendments.
You might like to note that article 2 states “Le secret des sources des journalistes est protégé dans l’exercice de leur mission d’information du public.” Pretty sure that even you can figure that out.
Depending on the nature of the libel, the punishment can be financial or custodial, or both. To formalise a complaint, the plaintiff has to go his local police station, which I understand Prebou Balane has done. Mr Balane has stated on several occasions that it is NOT a civil case. A civil case would incur costs, and would require board approval if it were to be undertaken by FC, rather than Mr Balane acting as an individual citizen of France. Interestingly for EU law students, the case is against a UK resident, for an article published by a UK webzine. Quite which court would have authority to hear such a case is unclear to me. But with your expert knowledge of French and EU law, I’m sure you’ll be able to tell me.