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Yorkshire face expulsion from Twenty20 Cup
YORKSHIRE'S season was last night plunged into chaos after their Twenty20 Cup quarter-final against Durham was dramatically postponed because Yorkshire fielded an ineligible player earlier in the tournament.
The club now face an anxious wait to find out whether they will be kicked out of the competition and be denied a possible place in the 2.5m Champions League after it emerged Azeem Rafiq – the 17-year-old off-spinner who played in the nine-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire on June 27 that sealed Yorkshire's place in the last eight – is not registered to play first-team cricket.
An England and Wales Cricket Board disciplinary panel is due to meet at Lord's on Thursday to determine Yorkshire's fate after last night's fixture was called off just five minutes before the scheduled start in front of several thousand bemused spectators.
The ECB could expel Yorkshire from the tournament, slap them with a fine or order that the Nottinghamshire fixture be replayed; whatever decision is taken, serious questions will be asked of a Yorkshire administration led by chief executive Stewart Regan that has presided over one of the most embarrassing episodes in the club's history.
Yorkshire last night issued a statement saying they "assumed" Rafiq would be qualified to play in this country as he had previously represented England at schoolboy level.
But assumption is a hazardous strategy and it has subsequently emerged Rafiq does not hold a British passport, despite living in Yorkshire since 2001.
The player has a permit allowing him to stay and work in this country indefinitely, but does not meet the regulations required for first team cricket.
David Collier, the ECB chief executive, explained: "There was no registration of the player right from the outset – that was the key problem.
"The problem then was that the player is not qualified as an English cricketer, so if Yorkshire had applied for registration they would have had to de-register Rana Naved (the Pakistan fast bowler) to be able to play Azeem Rafiq in the game against Nottinghamshire.
"There were several severe complications in this case, but the bottom line is the player was not registered to play in first-class cricket."
In a statement the ECB said they had "received allegations" Rafiq was ineligible, but both Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan – the clubs with the most to benefit from Yorkshire's blunder in terms of Twenty20 qualification – last night denied any involvement.
To add to the confusion, an ECB spokesman suggested comments made by Yorkshire captain Darren Gough might have prompted officials at Lord's to look into Rafiq's background.
Gough joked that all he knew about the player was that "he's 17 and from Barnsley" prior to a Nottinghamshire game in which Rafiq, ironically, had only a minor involvement, taking 0-18 from two overs.
Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of professional cricket, described last night's events as "a disaster" and said he was as much in the dark as everyone else.
"It's a disaster and it reflects badly on Yorkshire," said Moxon. "I can only apologise on my behalf and on the club's behalf to Durham. It's a nightmare situation. We need to conduct an investigation to find out what happened.
"I knew last Friday that the relevant form had not been signed. I thought it would just be a fine or a slap on the wrist. I only found out (yesterday) that we were in hot water. There is a risk we could be thrown out of the competition."
Collier insisted the ECB could have done nothing to call off the match earlier even though he revealed they knew about the problem yesterday morning.
"I don't think we could have done any more," he said. "It has been a mad rush. The worst would have been to just ignore it and act as though nothing had happened and let the game go ahead with the knowledge that the game may well have to be replayed.
"We were aware of the situation (Monday) morning and immediately spoke to all the correct people. Clearly, it's not ideal when these sort of situations occur on the day of such a major match."
Durham chief executive David Harker described the episode as "a sorry state of affairs" and bemoaned the cost to cricket's reputation.
Rafiq signed scholarship terms with Yorkshire in 2006 and agreed an Academy contract in 2007.
The player was not at Chester-le-Street last night, but sources said he was understandably distraught following a debacle for which the club were squarely at fault.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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