SQUALID MESS HAS DRAGGED CRICKET INTO THE GUTTER

IT is difficult to envisage a happy ending now, or how the biggest crisis to ever envelop Yorkshire can be solved. It is no exaggeration to say the scandal over the treatment of Azeem Rafiq threatens the very foundations of one of England’s most illustrious counties.

Just when it appears it cannot get any worse, along come more damning allegations involving significant figures in the club’s history and an unseemly squabble between Yorkshire and the ECB over who should be responsible for clearing up this squalid mess.

It seemed we had reached a nadir when it emerged earlier this week that not only had Gary Ballance called his ‘friend’ Rafiq a ‘P**i’ but that it had been dismissed as banter by the sorry excuse of an independent inquiry that has now cost Yorkshire chair Roger Hutton his job.

But yesterday was the most disturbing day yet in an affair that is gathering troubling momentum.

There are few bigger figures in English cricket than Michael Vaughan, captain of that fabled Ashes-winning team of 2005 and now the face of BBC cricket as they try to attract a young and diverse audience to the game through coverage of the Hundred.

But his position is now seriously in jeopardy following Sportsmail’s revelation that Rana Naved has backed up Rafiq’s allegation that he said ‘Too many of you lot, we need to do something about it,’ to a group of Asian players at the club.

Vaughan’s decision to get his retaliation in first by confirming the accusations against him — and vigorously denying them — on Thursday appears to have backfired, not least because he revealed the BBC were aware about his involvement last summer but did nothing.

Surely, then, their coverage of the Rafiq story was compromised and it is no surprise that the BBC are now said to be reviewing Vaughan’s position.

Then there is coach Andrew Gale, who admitted yesterday using the word ‘yid’ to insult the then head of media at Leeds United when he was Yorkshire captain in 2010.

Three players in the spotlight so far and, it seems, several more to come.

It was little better when ECB chief executive Tom Harrison made a rare appearance above the parapet to address the governing body’s belated decision to get fully involved in the crisis once sponsors had started deserting Yorkshire.

The ECB made a decent start on Thursday when they stripped Yorkshire of international cricket until they get their house in order, as Sportsmail insisted they should. But Harrison was distinctly uninspiring yesterday as he tried to convince us, not for the first time this year, of the ECB’s capacity for firm leadership.

First, there seemed to be a blame game going on, with Hutton criticising the ECB’s lack of support for Yorkshire when Rafiq first made his claims of institutionalised racism and Harrison insisting it was not the ECB’s place then to get involved.

They sure as hell are involved now but Harrison first caused eyebrows to be raised yesterday when he confirmed he had not yet read the controversial report into the allegations — even though it has now been in the ECB’s possession for several days.

Harrison blamed a ‘regulatory process’ but surely, as the main man at the ECB, he would want to get his hands on that document as soon as it dropped on the ECB’s doormat at Lord’s. Otherwise how can he be sure of what he is dealing with?

Then there was his admission he has had no recent contact with Rafiq — even though he admitted this week’s developments ‘vindicate’ the struggles of a British Asian cricketer who has been doubted by some in the game for far too long.

Quite how Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon are still in place at Headingley beggars belief.

Perhaps their exits will come when they face the music in front of MPs at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s select committee hearing on November 16.

Before then, Yorkshire, and particularly the ECB, have to mean business. To be fair to Harrison, he seemed sincere when answering the accusation that the ECB had only got involved properly because sponsors have started walking away from the game and politicians have become involved.

‘I don’t think it was that,’ he said. ‘It was about the game being dragged through the mud and the disrepute as a result of the statement by Yorkshire last week that no action was going to be taken.

‘That was the moment we felt we were dealing with something very different.

‘It became clear we would have to take significant action because the message was that cricket was light on racism. We needed to take decisive action because Yorkshire failed to do so. So we have.’

Not quite. They have made a start but there is lots more to be done.