Why Yorkshire CCC was right to apologise over staff letter on Rafiq – Yorkshire Post Letters

Your cricket correspondent, Chris Waters, has covered extensively the case of the former Yorkshire cricket staff dismissed in December 2021.

Whilst I welcome the opportunity to hear their side of the story, I disagree with Mr Waters’ benign view of the letter signed by fourteen individuals in autumn 2021.

According to The Yorkshire Post’s report of November 11, 2021, that letter stated that the club’s “ initial apology… was not the correct approach”; that Azeem Rafiq was “problematic in the dressing room”; and on a “one-man mission to bring down the club”.

Given that the use and tolerance of racist language has been established, along with the club’s failure to follow its own procedures for complaints of racism, it seems to me that the club’s apology was the minimum requirement.

Roger Hutton was right at the time to say that the signatories were wrong to “consider the perceived failings in Azeem Rafiq’s character as some form of mitigation”. And they had no basis to accuse Rafiq of seeking the club’s demise.

I’m sure their motives were honourable, in that they sought to defend their colleagues and friends. But it was nonetheless a grossly mistaken and inflammatory letter.

Perhaps part of the problem was a misunderstanding of the term “institutional racism”, which means that the club was failing to set standards and have processes in place. It does not mean that overt racism was found among individuals, but perhaps the staff nevertheless felt the need to defend themselves against that suggestion.

I do think it’s significant that no Yorkshire cricketers of South Asian origins have made their debuts since 2010. The end of Steve Oldham’s tenure as academy coach (the following year) ended what, twelve years ago, had seemed a new beginning for the club in its recognition and development of local talent.

Chris Waters has also called for Lord Patel to resign, and called him “the worst chairman in the club’s history”.

However, I’m not sure what any of us would have done, faced on the one hand with the loss of sponsors and international fixtures, and on the other with a concerted refusal from the paid leadership and staff to acknowledge that anything had to change.