Richard Whittam KC to chair new Cricket Discipline Panel

Richard Whittam KC has been appointed chair of the Cricket Discipline Panel (CDP), a new independent tribunal which will take over from the Cricket Discipline Commission as the body to hear and adjudicate on regulatory breaches in English professional cricket and subsequent sanctions handed out.

Whittam’s appointment, made by the ECB board for a four-year term, comes after an open recruitment process. The 64-year-old is a specialist regulatory and criminal barrister with a background in sport.

After serving as a deputy high court judge between 2016 and 2022, Whittam was appointed as the Rugby Football Union’s Head of Independent Judiciary last year. He has chaired discipline, safeguarding and appeal panels in rugby union since 2014. Whittam is also a member of the Word Rugby and European Professional Club Rugby Judicial Panels.

Whittam will be responsible for presiding over specific disciplinary cases, and appointing the other members of the CDP who possess an appropriate range of skills and diversity. Once they are in place, the panel will begin considering cases, taking over this role from the current CDC, which is chaired by Tim O’Gorman.

The CDP’s function will be to consider cases brought before it by the Cricket Regulator, the body responsible for monitoring compliance with and enforcement of adherence to the game’s regulations on behalf of the ECB. Formed in 2023, the Cricket Regulator was a key recommendation from a damning report published by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) in June of that year, detailing structural inequalities across race, gender and class in cricket in England and Wales.

The majority of cases brought to the panel will relate to breaches of the ECB’s Professional Conduct Regulations, but will also include other regulations such as the Anti-Corruption code, Player and Match Officials’ Minimum Standards, Cricket Playing Conditions, Bowling Review Regulations, Pitch Regulations and Head Protector Regulations.

Speaking on his appointment, Whittam said: “I am delighted to be appointed to this important role. It is vital to the integrity of cricket that the sport’s rules and regulations are upheld. As the first Chair of the CDP I look forward to getting the Panel up and running and ensuring that cases are dealt with promptly, in a fair, thorough and transparent manner.”

ECB chair Richard Thompson said: “The independent Cricket Discipline Panel will play an important role in enforcing cricket’s regulations and dealing with any misconduct and regulatory breaches. Richard Whittam KC has an impressive background in law and sports discipline which makes him the ideal person to chair the Panel.

“I’d like to pass on my sincere thanks to Tim O’Gorman and all the panel members from the Cricket Discipline Commission for the service they have given the game over many years. They have performed an important duty in enforcing cricket’s regulations, and I’m grateful for their continued service while the new Cricket Discipline Panel members are recruited.”