Reconciliation is needed over the Yorkshire CCC racism scandal - Sanjay Bhandari

A survey of the current landscape suggests that there will be more darkness to navigate before the club emerges into the light. The recent hearing of the ECB’s Cricket Disciplinary Commission (CDC) is a significant milestone on the journey but the commentary around it demonstrates why it is unlikely to signal the end of the pain.

The information available to the public was a partial view of the evidence that the tribunal saw. We got a ball-by-ball commentary of legal cross examination of a selection of witnesses interpreted largely by sports journalists, whose views may differ from the lawyers deciding the case.

What we missed was detailed examination of the evidence against the defendants who did not appear and the witness statements that were merely confirmed for the record. What we missed was Yorkshire’s admissions of its failures, including the scandalous mass deletion of potentially relevant emails, and the evidence of Gary Ballance and Matthew Hoggard as to the culture of casual use of racist language.

The hearing thus became disproportionately focused on the charges against Michael Vaughan - as the only defendant to appear to give evidence, recollections of Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashid, the quality of the ECB’s investigation and reporters’ assessments of the credibility and performance of witnesses.

The CDC judgement is due later this month. It will address those other charges so that Vaughan’s case will form a smaller part of the final judgement, though he will doubtless dominate attention.

It is hard to escape the feeling that the hearing has changed nobody’s opinions. There was something in it for everyone. Whoever you thought was to blame for Yorkshire’s troubles before the hearing, those beliefs will likely have been reinforced.

There is no reason to expect that the judgement will alter those dangerously entrenched tribal beliefs. I doubt it will signal final resolution and I expect everyone involved to feel some dissatisfaction when the judgement comes. It will cause more column inches that generate more heat than light.

The darkness will continue. As well as the CDC judgement, the report is due soon from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) commissioned by the ECB. This has been a huge review looking at thousands of pieces of evidence examining issues of race, gender and class across the whole of English cricket. All noises are that it will have a seismic impact not just on cricket but across UK sport causing a wave of self-reflection.

So much for the darkness. Where is the light? The ICEC report itself will represent an opportunity for the game to confront its own brutal facts if it can muster the courage to do so.

One of the challenges is likely to be the creation of a “speak up” culture inside dressing rooms. In sport, coaches and captains have a unique power to influence career outcomes that is inherently prone to abuse. No sport has mastered this as the case of former Crawley Town manager John Yems has recently demonstrated. Cricket and Yorkshire have an opportunity to take the lead.

Yorkshire’s healing process may progress at a different pace to the rest of cricket. Borrowing from the lessons of post-apartheid South Africa, Lord Patel talked of the need for Truth and Reconciliation.

Of course, truth is like common sense in that each of us believes we have a unique monopoly in it. We each have different perspectives. In seeking reconciliation, Mandela consciously chose forgiveness over retribution. To achieve some kind of closure in cricket, it will thus be important for people to feel that they have been heard.

For Rafiq, Vaughan and other defendants, the CDC hearing is hopefully a path towards such closure. Others remain bruised and feel unheard.

Former England skipper Mike Atherton and others have highlighted the cases of dismissed staff who feel stigmatised by association. Lord Patel has intimated that the ECB urged him to exclude certain individuals from the governance process then failed to support him sufficiently.

Beyond reconciliation, the fundamentals give cause for optimism. Work on elite player pathways is already showing encouraging signs of attracting and promoting players from more diverse backgrounds.

Think of cricket and you think of India and Yorkshire. It’s a brand recognition others dream about. With a large local South Asian community in Yorkshire, the opportunities to connect to that broader diaspora are huge. Even relegation represents an opportunity for a sporting reset.

Private Equity and Sovereign Wealth funds are circling most sports looking for value investments and the sleeping Yorkshire giant is a rare commercial opportunity. The appointment of a new Chair of Yorkshire provides an opportunity to unlock that enormous potential. The successful candidate will also need to hear and reconcile the perspectives of individuals involved in recent events to rebuild damaged trust. When the dust settles, maybe Vaughan and Rafiq could be part of that future.

Sanjay Bhandari is the chair of anti-discrimination campaign Kick It Out.