https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/03/31/yorkshire-cricket-racism-timeline-key-moments-azeem-rafiq/
The eight most dramatic moments in Yorkshire cricket’s toxic racism saga
Michael Vaughan will hear on Friday morning whether he has been found guilty of making a racist remark. This is how we got here

By
Tom Morgan,
SPORTS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
31 March 2023 • 7:23am
In a two-and-a-half-year saga, the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal prompted interventions from the Prime Minister, then angry accusations that due process was forgotten as reputations and careers at Yorkshire cricket were torched. What follows are the most significant moments in the case........

....Secrecy around the Squire Patton Boggs report
The report was initially delivered to Headingley in August 2020 after a ten-month inquiry. However, the club continued, on the basis of legal advice, to refuse to publish the report in its entirety. What followed was weeks of criticism over delays in publishing the findings, before the club released a summarised report on Sept 10, 2021, recognising that seven of 43 allegations outlined by Rafiq had been upheld.

A total of 29 interviews with 26 witnesses took place, with investigators finding there was “no question” of racial harassment. The seven upheld allegations were:

When playing junior cricket for Yorkshire, Rafiq was not provided with halal food at matches;
Before 2010, there were three separate instances of racist language used by former players;
Before 2012, a former coach regularly used racist language;
Between 2016 and 2018 there were jokes made around religion, which made individuals uncomfortable about their religious practices;
Between 2016 and 2018, a former player made references to Rafiq’s weight and fitness that amounted to bullying;
In 2018, when Rafiq raised concerns of racism, the club failed to follow their own policy or investigate the allegations;
The club could have done more to make Muslims more welcome within their stadiums and should have dealt better with complaints of racist or antisocial behaviour within those stadiums.

Read more at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/03/31/yorkshire-cricket-racism-timeline-key-moments-azeem-rafiq/

RH

On Friday, March 31, 2023 at 9:14:02 AM UTC+1, Robert Henderson wrote:
> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/03/31/yorkshire-cricket-racism-timeline-key-moments-azeem-rafiq/
> The eight most dramatic moments in Yorkshire cricket’s toxic racism saga

.....

> A total of 29 interviews with 26 witnesses took place, with investigators finding there was “no question” of racial harassment. The seven upheld allegations were:
>
> When playing junior cricket for Yorkshire, Rafiq was not provided with halal food at matches;
> Before 2010, there were three separate instances of racist language used by former players;
> Before 2012, a former coach regularly used racist language;
> Between 2016 and 2018 there were jokes made around religion, which made individuals uncomfortable about their religious practices;
> Between 2016 and 2018, a former player made references to Rafiq’s weight and fitness that amounted to bullying;
> In 2018, when Rafiq raised concerns of racism, the club failed to follow their own policy or investigate the allegations;
> The club could have done more to make Muslims more welcome within their stadiums and should have dealt better with complaints of racist or antisocial behaviour within those stadiums.
>

This seems a pretty damning list to me. And having to pay so much compensation to
peopel they sacked didnt help matters. Hopefully the people in charge now are more
competent with better judgement. However having been relegated last season, it
could be a difficult season since they will be missing Root and Brook to the IPL
and then England, and Bairstows still not fit to play, and even the new captain Masood
might be missing the april matches if hes picked by Pakistan.

mike

On Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 6:06:56 PM UTC+1, mike wrote:
> On Friday, March 31, 2023 at 9:14:02 AM UTC+1, Robert Henderson wrote:
> > https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/03/31/yorkshire-cricket-racism-timeline-key-moments-azeem-rafiq/
> > The eight most dramatic moments in Yorkshire cricket’s toxic racism saga
> ....
> > A total of 29 interviews with 26 witnesses took place, with investigators finding there was “no question” of racial harassment. The seven upheld allegations were:
> >
> > When playing junior cricket for Yorkshire, Rafiq was not provided with halal food at matches;
> > Before 2010, there were three separate instances of racist language used by former players;
> > Before 2012, a former coach regularly used racist language;
> > Between 2016 and 2018 there were jokes made around religion, which made individuals uncomfortable about their religious practices;
> > Between 2016 and 2018, a former player made references to Rafiq’s weight and fitness that amounted to bullying;
> > In 2018, when Rafiq raised concerns of racism, the club failed to follow their own policy or investigate the allegations;
> > The club could have done more to make Muslims more welcome within their stadiums and should have dealt better with complaints of racist or antisocial behaviour within those stadiums.
> >
> This seems a pretty damning list to me.
OPf course it does you are a liberal bigot. DOH!!!!! RH

And having to pay so much compensation to
> peopel they sacked didnt help matters. Hopefully the people in charge now are more
> competent with better judgement.

Of course they wont be because they are all in thrall to political correctness... RH

On Sat, 1 Apr 2023 10:06:55 -0700 (PDT), mike <dmike204@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

>On Friday, March 31, 2023 at 9:14:02?AM UTC+1, Robert Henderson wrote:
>> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/03/31/yorkshire-cricket-racism-timeline-key-moments-azeem-rafiq/
>> The eight most dramatic moments in Yorkshire cricket’s toxic racism saga
>
>....
>
>> A total of 29 interviews with 26 witnesses took place, with investigators finding there was “no question” of racial harassment. The seven upheld allegations were:
>>
>> When playing junior cricket for Yorkshire, Rafiq was not provided with halal food at matches;
>> Before 2010, there were three separate instances of racist language used by former players;
>> Before 2012, a former coach regularly used racist language;
>> Between 2016 and 2018 there were jokes made around religion, which made individuals uncomfortable about their religious practices;
>> Between 2016 and 2018, a former player made references to Rafiq’s weight and fitness that amounted to bullying;
>> In 2018, when Rafiq raised concerns of racism, the club failed to follow their own policy or investigate the allegations;
>> The club could have done more to make Muslims more welcome within their stadiums and should have dealt better with complaints of racist or antisocial behaviour within those stadiums.
>>
>
>This seems a pretty damning list to me. And having to pay so much compensation to
>peopel they sacked didnt help matters. Hopefully the people in charge now are more
>competent with better judgement. However having been relegated last season, it
>could be a difficult season since they will be missing Root and Brook to the IPL
>and then England, and Bairstows still not fit to play, and even the new captain Masood
>might be missing the april matches if hes picked by Pakistan.

I rather like Mark Ramprakash's take on it, which is roughly:
- bad things happened
- punishing people beyond naming a few names is pretty pointless after
so long
- what's really important is that lines have been drawn in the sand,
there are clear requirements for counties' playing and non-playing
staff to meet and nobody in the English game has any excuse from now
on.

I'm no great fan of quotas, but there is something wrong when 30% of
teenage players in Middlesex are of Asian descent but only 3% of the
players to have got past the county's net trials are. Warm words from
the Middx chair about how he knows the club has to do much better need
translation into action, for instance. Parliament actually requires
the ECB to report on progress across the game.

Enough shameful dirty linen has been exposed to public view for it to
be clear there is a major problem which needs addressing. I'm against
an Inquisition in which every possible person's every remark for the
last 15 years is scrutinised for possible infringements of rules
nobody specified, because that's just a way of diverting cricket's
money to the capacious pockets of expensive KCs. As in yesterday's
debate about exactly how culpable Vaughan's undoubtedly silly remarks
were.

At the county level, I'm in favour a general amnesty for players and
coaches with considerable (non-financial) credit being offered for
confession and apology; among the blazer-wearing nabobs of the clubs,
however, I wouldn't be at all averse to a cull of some of the ghastly
old gits.

Cheers,

Mike