Yorkshire dodge relegation but may be deducted points

YORKSHIRE have avoided relegation to Division Two as punishment for their mishandling of the Azeem Rafiq affair but could still be hit with a points deduction across all three formats, Sportsmail can reveal. The crisis-hit club will be named in Division One when the County Championship fixtures are belatedly published next week. The ECB delayed releasing the domestic fixture list as planned last month to give them more time to consider disciplinary action against Yorkshire but, with their investigation into the club’s handling of Rafiq’s racism complaints not expected to conclude until shortly before the start of the season, the threat of immediate relegation has been removed. A points deduction remains a real possibility however, and, if that sanction is pursued, it would apply to the Championship, Royal London Cup and Twenty20 Blast. Suspension for a period from one of the three competitions is another possible sanction, though that is not thought to be realistic. The ECB began a new investigation in November after receiving Yorkshire’s report into the racism allegations former player Rafiq made against the club. It will be published in early spring. Meanwhile, Yorkshire coach Ryan Sidebottom has apologised after saying the club should ‘try and forget’ the scandal. The 43-year-old returned to his county last week as a temporary coach under new director of cricket Darren Gough. Speaking about the Rafiq affair yesterday, he said: ‘It’s been difficult for lots of reasons. Let’s try and forget about it.’ Sidebottom’s comments were criticised by Rafiq on Twitter. ‘Let’s definitely not just “forget it”,’ he posted. ‘Learn from it and make things better. Wish it was that easy just to forget it and pretend nothing happened.’ Sidebottom then tweeted: ‘I’m truly sorry for any offence caused. We should never forget, we must learn. I never meant to say forget. My choice of words was wrong. ‘I didn’t mean that the situation should be forgotten about. On the contrary, it must never be forgotten. It was a poor choice of words.’