Gary Ballance is one of the good guys and a big loss to Yorkshire CCC - Chris Waters comment

From the moment that Gary Ballance was named as the central figure in the racism scandal, accused of abusing his former friend and team-mate Azeem Rafiq, it was always likely that his Yorkshire career would come to an end.

Perhaps the only surprise was it took so long; Thursday’s announcement that Ballance is going with two years of his contract left came some 13 months after his name hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and almost 15 months since he last played a first-team game for the club.

That it did not end sooner was essentially down to two factors: first, Ballance’s ongoing battle with his mental health, surely exacerbated to a horrible level by the effect of the scandal on so many others (a battle which meant that he was unable to play first-team cricket last summer); and, second, by Yorkshire’s willingness to stand by him throughout the crisis, one of the few things that the club has actually got right.

Whereas 16 coaches and backroom staff were unceremoniously sacked without due process or proper investigation, leading to a raft of unfair dismissal payouts, damaged lives and shattered careers, Yorkshire paradoxically stood by the one man who did admit using racist language - albeit, he said, in the context of former close friends exchanging insults in social settings, a kind of six-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other with no malice involved.

Ballance held up his hands and apologised profusely.

He deserved – and received – a second chance from Yorkshire.

Whatever the ins-and-outs of this wretched scandal, which continues on Tuesday with another DCMS “hearing” that will no longer be chaired by Julian Knight MP, whose whip has been removed, perhaps ironically, Ballance is simply the latest casualty of it, central or collateral.

One can only take people as one finds them in life, and this correspondent always found Ballance to be one of the good guys.

It is, by no means, a minority view.

Darren Gough, the Yorkshire managing director of cricket, is desperately sorry to see him go; ditto the rest of the coaches, the players, the club staff and supporters.

Indeed, Ballance is one of the few figures in all of this who is universally liked and admired in the game of cricket, not just at Yorkshire.

His mobile phone is sure to be hot with well-wishes.

It would have been fascinating, in fact, to have seen the reception that Ballance got if he had returned to first-team action last summer.

Word had it that he was going to come back in the One-Day Cup; Ballance made a couple of second-team hundreds just prior to that and then cracked 95 off 25 balls in a warm-up game for the 50-over tournament at Northumberland.

A return at Scarborough seemed likely at one stage, where the welcome would no doubt have been especially warm, for it is a ground, a setting, that inspires warmth.

But no.

Alas, the health did not play ball and the comeback hopes were put on hold.

At that stage, one sensed that Ballance’s Yorkshire days were done.

Now he is going home to Zimbabwe where the pull of a fresh start and, perhaps, the prospect of resurrecting his international career with his native country will no doubt be good for him.

He is grateful for the support that he has received from Yorkshire, who stood by him in his hour of need. Again, well done to them in that instance.

At the heart of this sad chapter, of course, is a cricketer who has just lost a year of his career, a man who, having only just turned 33, could still have a good five years left in him perhaps.

He is, and always has been, a terrific batsman - a guarantee of runs in red-ball and white.

Ballance played 23 Tests and 16 one-day internationals, and he was the third-fastest to reach 1,000 runs in Test cricket for England.

You might have heard of the other two gentlemen - Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton.

The stunning start tailed off but, amid some pretty hurtful criticism at times of his technique and method, from the likes of the curiously revered Bob Willis, that was perhaps understandable, but his final record still stands up to scrutiny - almost 1,500 Test runs at just under 40.

For Yorkshire, Ballance - who made his debut for the club in 2008 - scored 8,507 runs in 127 first-class games at an average of 47 with 27 hundreds.

In 76 one-day matches, he scored 3,033 runs at 50.55 with four hundreds.

Those statistics put him in the top bracket of players to have represented the club throughout its near 160-year history.

He will be tough to replace and sorely missed.

One hopes that happier times are just around the corner, and that he can get back to doing what he has always done best – playing cricket and scoring runs as few others can.