No one else should go through this hurt

THIS was a day that cricket will not forget in a hurry – and nor should it.

To see Azeem Rafiq go through his powerful testimony in full was heartbreaking and something that surely touched everyone watching on a simple human level.

But it was a moment the game needed. Beyond just words on a T-shirt, or an action plan on a powerpoint, the game needed a visceral connection to understand properly the pain that the scourge of racism can cause.

There will be plenty of people who will have either watched Rafiq or read about it who will be shocked at what he has had to say.

But there will also be a fair few who will not be surprised at the way in which

Rafiq, right, and other players of colour were treated at a club that has long had an awkward relationship with anyone non-white or non-Yorkshire.

Nor will they be surprised by the other stories that are starting to emerge or by the lack of action so far by the

ECB, who have been happy enough with the status quo until it became an existential threat.

Ultimately that is what we are dealing with here – for all the backslapping over the success of The Hundred with all those multi-cultural crowds. They will disappear if the game does not embrace the full spectrum of society. Watching Rafiq deliver his testimony and talk of his desire to be a ‘voice for the voiceless’, I was also struck by how much he still loves Yorkshire Cricket Club. “It is my club” he said. Far from wanting to tear it down, he wants to help build it up and that is what the game can start to do in the coming months and years.

It is an incredible sport and it should be available to all. Rafiq’s pain and suffering was put on public display here and that should be enough for us all to decide that no one else need go through it again.