Rafiq: Victims will now come forward
Azeem Rafiq believes ‘hundreds and thousands’ of cricketers could follow his lead by sharing experiences of racism in the game and warned Yorkshire cannot move forward until Andrew Gale and Martyn Moxon have left the club.
Rafiq rocked the sport with a damning parliamentary appearance in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Tuesday, during which he outlined in disturbing detail his own account of racial harassment and discrimination.
Between that and a newly published employment tribunal witness statement he made several fresh allegations against high-profile individuals, including ex-England players Gary Ballance, Tim Bresnan, Matthew Hoggard and Alex Hales, and expects the spotlight he has attracted to encourage others to speak up in their droves.
He said: “I think you’re going to get it into the hundreds and thousands, possibly. I do feel it’s going to be a little bit of ‘floodgates’ and a lot of victims of abuse are going to come forward.”
Rafiq renewed calls for the departures of Gale, who is currently suspended as head coach pending investigation over an historic tweet, and director of cricket Moxon, who is signed off work with a stress-related illness.
“I don’t think Martyn and Andrew can (continue),” Rafiq added. “I don’t think it’s possible for Yorkshire to move forward with them in there, with them knowing full well what role they played in that institution.”
Neither man took up the chance to give their own evidence in Westminster. “They had an opportunity to come down here under parliamentary privilege to get their side of the story across and they didn’t,” said Rafiq.