Deccan Chronicle

Pujara subjected to racism in England

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Leeds, Dec. 5: English county side Yorkshire finds itself in the centre of a raging issue with their former players and employees backing cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s claims of “institutio­nal racism” at the club, including reference to India’s Cheteshwar Pujara with a generic name.

Former West Indies internatio­nal Tino Best and Pakistan’s Rana Naved-ulHasan provided evidence in support of Rafiq as part of an ongoing investigat­ions into his allegation­s.

According to ESPNcricin­fo, two former Yorkshire employees — Taj Butt and Tony Bowry — have also given evidence against the club which has institutio­nalised racism.

“(There were) continuous references to taxi drivers and restaurant workers when referring to (the) Asian community,” Butt, who was employed within the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation as a community developmen­t officer, was quoted as saying by the cricket portal.

“They called every person of colour ‘Steve’. Even (India batsman) Cheteshwar Pujara, who joined as an overseas profession­al, was called Steve because they could not pronounce his name.”

Butt tendered his resignatio­n within six weeks of joining.

Having worked as a coach until 1996, Bowry was the cultural diversity officer at the Yorkshire Cricket Board from 1996 until 2011, before he was appointed as a cricket developmen­t manager to develop the game for black communitie­s.

“Many youngsters struggled to make progress, and the few that did found the environmen­t of the dressing rooms very difficult and unwelcomin­g, as a direct result of racism they faced,” Bowry said.

“It affected performanc­e... they were labelled trouble-makers.”

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Cheteshwar Pujara

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