On Friday, the Yorkshire County Cricket Club conceded that their former bowler Azeem Rafiq was subjected to racial harassment and bullying in his stint at the club.
Rafiq’s fight for justice against the YCCC has been going on for a long time. Azeem had accused that he was racially harassed at Yorkshire during his first stint at the club from 2008 to 2014.
The club had launched an investigation by a private firm. The club released part of the panel’s report only after they were forced to do so due to rising voices in the social media and cricket fraternity.
According to the summary of the report, seven of the 40 allegations by Rafiq were upheld. The club admitted that the cricketer was indeed racially harassed and bullied.
“There is no question that Azeem Rafiq, during his first spell as a player at YCCC, was the victim of racial harassment. He was also subsequently the victim of bullying,”
the chairman Roger Hutton said in a statement.
According to the findings of the report, Rafiq was not provided with Halal food during his time at Yorkshire. There were three separate incidents of racist language used against Rafiq by former players. The report stated a former coach regularly used racist language before 2012.
During his second stint from 2016 to 2018, there were jokes being made on the religion, making individuals uncomfortable. A former player had also made remarks on Rafiq’s weight, amounting to bullying.
In August 2018, the board failed to launch an investigation after Rafiq had raised concerns of racism. The club also conceded that they could’ve done more for Muslims to feel welcome prior to 2018.
However, the board stated that the majority of the allegations were not upheld due to insufficient evidence. The club also denied that there’s an ‘institutional racism’ problem.
“The panel were unanimous in concluding that it could not reach a finding of institutional racism on the basis of insufficient evidence,”
the report said.
There are serious doubts over the sincerity of the club in this matter. They released the summary of the report when the social media was abuzz with the cancellation of the fifth Test between England and India.
Azeem’s team was handed the copy of the report only a few minutes before they went public. A spokesperson for Azeem highlighted how badly the situation has been handled by YCCC.
