Azeem Rafiq racism claim - Yorkshire CCC launch investigation panel

Rafiq has said that he was close to committing suicide during his time at the club, for whom he made his debut in 2008 and played his final match in 2018.

The panel – officially a sub-committee appointed by the Yorkshire board – will be chaired by Dr Samir Pathak, a trustee of the MCC Foundation, a member of the MCC Cricket Committee, an academic clinical lecturer at the University of Bristol and a liver and pancreas surgeon at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust.

A keen cricket fan, Dr Pathak played for England Universities as a wicketkeeper/batsman.

“Being of British-Indian heritage and having been born in Yorkshire, it is an honour to chair this sub-committee, which will review the serious grievances raised,” he said.

“There is a need for all organisations to be diverse and inclusive.

“My heritage means that I have a deep-rooted interest in equality within sport and society, and I aim to be as impartial as possible throughout this fair and independent investigation.”

Also co-opted on to the sub-committee is Gulfraz Riaz, chair of the National Asian Cricket Council, who has worked as a cricket development manager at Club Cricket Conference for the past eight years.

“The National Asian Cricket Council is grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to what is an important review for Azeem, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the game more broadly,” he said.

“In the first instance, it will be crucial to understand the precise nature of Azeem’s grievances and to ensure that following a thorough and transparent review, a suitable outcome is reached.

“Beyond that, the National Asian Cricket Council looks forward to being able to contribute more holistically to recommendations that move us all closer to best practice.

“We feel strongly that cricket is a game for everyone.”

Other members of the sub-committee are Stephen Willis, chief financial officer at Durham University and senior independent director at Yorkshire CCC, and Hanif Malik OBE, an independent director at the club.

Malik, the founder of Hamara Healthy Living Centre in Leeds, where he spent 20 years working as chief executive, was also a non-executive director at Sport England for six years.

The sub-committee, which is expected to interview former and current players, along with various staff, will be advised by the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs, which has offices in 
Leeds.

No timescale has been given for the outcome of its deliberations.

The panel announcement comes as dozens of Yorkshire-based Asian businesses joined an online petition calling for the transparency that Yorkshire are promising.

The petition, made through the website change.org, is demanding, among other things, that Yorkshire “create an independent task force to implement the findings, including removing the perpetrators from YCCC”.

It says that the allegations “have dealt a severe blow to the confidence which the local Asian community places within YCCC”.

Rafiq, 29, claimed in an interview with ESPNcricinfo last week that he was close to taking his own life due to the racism he suffered while playing for the club.

“I know how close I was to committing suicide during my time at Yorkshire,” he said.

“I was living my family’s dream as a professional cricketer, but inside I was dying.

“I was dreading going to work.

“There were times I did things to try and fit in that, as a Muslim, I now look back on and regret.

“I’m not proud of it at all.

“But as soon as I stopped trying to fit in, I was an outsider.”

Rafiq, who no longer plays professionally, added that he had a captain who was “openly racist” and said that he was speaking out in the hope that others would not experience similar pain.

“I believe the club is institutionally racist and I don’t believe they are prepared to acknowledge the fact or willing to change,” he added.

It was in response to Rafiq’s devastating claims that Yorkshire launched a formal investigation into Rafiq’s specific allegations as well as a wider review into their “policies and culture”.

The club admitted that it is “not perfect” and that “it’s a work in progress”, but it insisted it has made “real efforts” to engage with “numerous groups right across the county, and across many cultures and ethnicities”.

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James Mitchinson