Azeem Rafiq, 30, a former Yorkshire captain, has threatened to reveal the evidence of racism abuse he suffered unless Yorkshire release the full report on racism at the club. Earlier, Yorkshire acknowledged that an independent report had upheld some of the allegations of racism made by Azeem. In a statement, the county apologised for the “inappropriate behaviour”.
However Rafiq accused the club of trying to play down his suffering by not mentioning racism in their apology. Rafiq also called for senior figures at Yorkshire - namely Mark Arthur, the chief executive, and Martyn Moxon, the director of cricket - to stand down. The independent investigation was launched a year ago after Rafiq claimed “institutional racism” at the
club had forced him to contemplate taking his own life. In a separate employment tribunal case, the former bowler alleged discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race, as well as victimisation.
Yorkshire conceded that some of his complaints had been upheld, but did not specify which
ones. The full report will be published in the coming weeks. Several Asian Yorkshire players are understood to have told the panel that they had been called a “smelly P***” and that a former captain had routinely used the word “n ***** ”. The panel was also told a number of coaches had been told not to select too many Asian players.
Yorkshire’s statement expressed their “profound apologies” and noted their failure to “implement policies and procedures”, but left Rafiq incensed. “To try and tone racism down to inappropriate behaviour. . . I find it really difficult to understand what they think they are doing,” he told Sky Sports News. “At the end of it [the statement] there is some sort of apology, but it is spoilt by the words that are used to try and minimise what my allegations were.”
He added: “I want to know which of my allegations have not been upheld. Most of my allegations are about people who are at the club in leadership positions so to try and say these are historic allegations from a long time ago - yes there are some things on there that go back to the start of my career, but the majority of them are about people who are still there and from my second spell at the club.
“I think the chief executive, the director of cricket, everyone who was in that room when I said it, and the inclusion and diversity manager whose front room I sat in and cried my eyes out, they need to go. I can put stuff in the public domain and let people work it out for themselves - [I’ve] no problem with that either. We need to avoid that car crash for everyone concerned.”
Yorkshire’s statement insisted that the allegations were historical. “There were many allegations made against the club, most of which relate to a period more than ten years ago,” they said. “Several of the allegations made by Azeem were upheld and that sadly, historically, Azeem was the victim of inappropriate behaviour. This is clearly unacceptable. We would like to express our profound apologies for this.”