England cricket chiefs have criticized former Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves for claiming that incidents of racism at his former club were banter. Six former Yorkshire players were found guilty of using racist language in the Azeem Rafiq case and were fined by the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) last month. 32-year-old Pakistani-born bowler Rafiq went public with allegations of racism and bullying last year, related to his two spells at the English county. The Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) has admitted four charges in relation to its handling of the allegations and is facing a sanctions hearing on June 27.
Graves had told Sky Sports that he did not believe racism was involved in the abuse. He said, I don’t think it was done on a racist, savage basis. I think there was a lot of – I know people don’t like the word banter – but I think there could have been a lot of banter in there about it, and I know people don’t like that. Graves added that when he was chairman of the club, nothing was brought up within the club regarding the allegations.
Former England batter Gary Ballance admitted to calling Rafiq a P**i, and ex-Ashes winners Matthew Hoggard and Tim Bresnan joined Andrew Gale, John Blain, and Richard Pyrah in withdrawing from the CDC proceedings in protest. In their absence, the commission panel upheld charges against the five players. None of the six men who were sanctioned are currently active in professional cricket.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was cleared of using racist language on the balance of probabilities after opting to defend himself at the hearing in March. The ECB stated that it was disappointed by Graves’s remarks and said, Racism isn’t banter. The ECB added that Yorkshire was currently working hard to resolve its cultural challenges, and the club and its new management had their full support.
Former Yorkshire chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel, who was brought in after several members of the board stepped down following the allegations of racism, said he was brought in to address institutional racism at the club. We should not forget that when I arrived on November 5, 2021, YCCC had lost the majority, if not all, its sponsors, Patel said. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that racism alleged to have taken place at YCCC was probably unlawful and threatened legal action if appropriate steps were not taken by the club to address the discrimination.
