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Dave Burden - remember him? he was elected as Chairman at the AGM in March 2005 - found he was having trouble getting information out to the membership. In August, he issued the following statement and it was published on the ACU&S website. It was on the website for three whole days. One or two people read it. Not too many, of course. One of those was a member of General Council. He was on the telephone to colleagues within minutes and a couple of hours later a call was made to the webmaster telling him to remove the statement. It's a bit late, perhaps, but we thought you might like to read what the elected chairman was trying to tell you.

Members will have read a "Statement from the Executive Board of General Council" in the latest edition of How's That? (No.299, Mid-Season 2005). This was printed without my seeing it in advance, and with no opportunity to respond. I am therefore taking this opportunity to respond via the Association's website and will require that this response is printed in the next edition of the newsletter.

The statement says that I "issued a statement questioning the financial dealings of the Association". I did indeed, and I believe that members have a right to know what was said in that statement. The main points were:

• the accounts for 2003-04 included a sum of £117,500 in respect of sponsorship and VAT. At the AGM, my predecessor made great play of this being from a major international company. In fact, whilst an invoice was prepared to ACE Insurance, this was cancelled and another one - with the same number - issued to the National Association of Clubs and League Cricket Conferences (NACLCC). The "promise to pay" note on which the auditors relied in approving the accounts was signed by the Chief Executive of NACLCC - Barrie Stuart-King. Members were deliberately misled at the AGM as to the source of the potential sponsorship;
• at the time it had promised to pay £117,500, NACLCC's bank account stood at less than £100. The company was wound up on 25th July 2005 with all the directors, including Barrie Stuart-King, having voted to wind it up, noting that it had not traded. How, therefore, could it have expected to fund ACU&S to the tune of £100, let alone £117,500;
• far from being supplied free of charge by sponsors, the laptop computers and projectors that have been supplied to some - though not all - regions for training and examination purposes have been leased by the Association, which is currently servicing at least five finance arrangements. I am assured that all payments are now up to date, but not before we have received notices of repudiation and threats to sue from various of the finance companies involved. I am still trying to find out the full indebtedness of the Association to these organisations.

General Council did indeed set up a committee of enquiry chaired by Colin Pearson. It has yet to report though a personal interim report by Colin Pearson confirmed many of the points made in my initial statement to General Council. Council chose to ignore this, however, and, at the Special Meeting it called, passed a so-called vote of no confidence in me. No notice was given of this motion of no confidence. It is therefore not only unconstitutional but completely invalid.

I made my first statement to the (scheduled) April meeting of General Council; and I issued another statement at the Special Meeting on 28th May. I will happily provide copies of these statements to any member on request. The majority on General Council is trying to keep things secret. I, on the contrary, believe that members have a right to know what is being done allegedly on their behalf.

Whatever 22 members of General Council may think, I was elected as Chairman by 795 members of this Association. I intend to fulfil my responsibilities to them and to all members. The statement in How's That? 299 refers to "lack of information from the Chairman as to where the Association is going". If nothing is done to halt the activities of those who still prevail on General Council, the answer is "down the tubes". I am working hard to stop that happening. I believe we should be totally open with members and with those, such as the ECB, who fund us about our financial position. Only when we have managed to sort out the current position can we plan sensibly to take the Association forward - in an honest and realistic way.

I am considering how best to resolve the current standoff between myself the duly elected Chairman of the Association and the majority of General Council. I will keep in touch with you about that. In the meantime, if you want to contact me, you can do so at (We have omitted Dave's private and e-mail addresses which were shown on the original statement).

David L. Burden Chairman - ACU&S

They told Dave that the website was not the right place for his statement because it was accessible by non-members and we did not want to be seen washing dirty linen in public. That would put off potential sponsors.

Would you believe it? Still, better late than never.