CRICKET’S DAY OF SHAME85
Chairman quits with blast at county’s chiefs and ECB
ENGLISH cricket is bracing itself for yet more pain and mudslinging asYorkshire’s reputation continued to burn on Bonfire Night.
Outgoing chairman Roger Hutton left his position with a series of stinging attacks on executives at the club and the ECB over their roles in the Azeem Rafiq scandal.
And despite the appointment of former social worker Lord Kamlesh Patel to the chairman’s role to bring about some calm and dignity to the club, the fallout continues.
Firstly with former Yorkshire and Pakistan player Rana Naved confirming that he did indeed hear Michael Vaughan say “there’s too many of your lot in this side, we need to do something about that”. And then with coach and former captain Andrew Gale being dragged into a wider debate on the culture at Yorkshire after a screenshot of him using an anti-Semitic word resurfaced. Gale insists he was unaware of its meaning. Hutton kicked off the day with his resignation and parting shots at chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon, not to mention the ECB who he accused of refusing to help with Yorkshire’s inquiry.
Hutton said: “I want to be clear that when I was made aware of Azeem Rafiq’s allegations, I immediately reached out to the ECB to ask for their help and intervention to support a robust inquiry.
“I was saddened when they declined to help as I felt it was a matter of great importance for the game as a whole.”
ECB chief executive Tom
Harrison, who is heading to Pakistan next week to help smooth over relations between the countries after England backed out of a tour in October, strongly refuted the claim that the governing body did not take the situation seriously.
Harrison, right, said: “We have had to step in in the most direct way and take unprecedented action in defending the values of the sport and reassuring families and our cricket fans that we take this seriously.
“It’s a very clear message about what we stand for and where the game is going.
“I disagree entirely with the characterisation of that statement that we declined to help with the investigation.
“We are the regulator, we either run the investigation in its entirety ourselves
or we let our
stakeholders run an investigation in the entirety itself.”
As part of their investigation the ECB will surely have to interview their own centrally-contracted bowler Adil Rashid, as one of four Asian players who were allegedly referred to as
“you lot” by Vaughan. Vaughan has categorically denied making those comments and insists he was shocked at the allegations.
But two out of the four have contradicted
Vaughan’s denials, and should Rashid also do the same, it is hard to see how the former England captain could continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Isa Guha presenting The Hundred without raising eyebrows.
Vaughan has been stood down from Monday’s edition of the Tuffers and Vaughan Show on Five Live while the BBC is understood to be considering his position as a summariser and expert analyst across their platforms. Rashid, meanwhile, is currently trying to help England secure a second global white-ball title in a row, but the Yorkshire saga is casting a shadow over the team’s efforts.
Lord Patel appears to be a sensible choice to enter the fray to steady the ship, since he understands fully the lived experience of being Asian in Yorkshire. “When I was a boy I developed into a very fast runner,” said Patel in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo. “Do you know why? Because gangs of skinheads used to delight in what they called P***-bashing and you either learnt to run or you took a beating. So that word – the P*** word – has real meaning for me. I don’t need to be told it’s not banter.”