Chairman quits as cricket racism row hits second county
ESSEX County Cricket Club’s chairman John Faragher has resigned as cricket’s racism row embroiled another first-class county.
The businessman stood down with immediate effect following an allegation he used racist language during a 2017 board meeting.
Faragher denies the incident but Essex say they will “review why it was not fully and independently investigated at the time”.
The action comes in the wake of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal at Yorkshire, which has cost the club millions of pounds in sponsors and match fees after their Headingley ground was suspended from hosting international matches.
Principles
Essex chief executive John Stephenson said: “There is no place for discrimination of any kind at Essex County Cricket Club.
“This is a proud club with a zerotolerance policy towards racism and any form of discrimination and, as Essex Cricket’s new chief executive officer, I will not hesitate to uphold those principles and drive out any form of discrimination that is uncovered.”
Stephenson, who took over day-to-day running of the County Championship club last month, was told about the alleged incident that involved
Faragher earlier this week.
He added: “The board met on Thursday night during which John Faragher’s resignation was unanimously accepted.” On Thursday, Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur became the latest senior figure to leave the under-fire club after chairman Roger Hutton resigned last week.
The club’s investigations began in 2020 after Rafiq, 32, claimed “institutional racism” left him close to taking his own life.
The former spinner, who left the club in 2018, complained how, in a decade-long career, he had been repeatedly asked, “Is that your uncle?”, when Asian men were in view, and was asked in reference to corner shops: “Does your dad own those?”
A subsequent investigation dismissed him being called a “P***” as “friendly banter”.