ECB want Yorkshire fined £500,000

THE England and Wales Cricket Board has recommended Yorkshire are hit with a £500,000 fine and hefty points deductions across all formats over their handling of the Azeem Rafiq case.

The sanctioning recommendations were made to an independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel in London yesterday, with Yorkshire having admitted to four charges in February related to the mishandling of

Rafiq’s case, the deletion of documents related to it and a failure to address the use of racist language at the club over a prolonged period.

Six former Yorkshire employees were sanctioned in May, with all of them found to have used the word “P***”, with a seventh – former England captain Michael Vaughan – cleared in March of using racist and/or discriminatory language towards a group of four players of Asian ethnicity, including Rafiq, before a Twenty20 match in 2009.

The governing body suggested £350,000 should be suspended for three years while the remaining £150,000 should be payable in instalments between January and June 2024. Any financial sanctions could hit the club hard, with Yorkshire chief executive Stephen Vaughan highlighting to members at the annual general meeting in

March that there was a £3.5m cash shortfall this year and the need to repay £14.9m to the Graves Trust.

The recommendation also claimed the “seriousness of the admissions” required sporting sanctions and proposed a 48-72 points deduction in the 2023 County Championship, a four-to-six points deduction in the 2023 One-Day Cup and a four-to-six points deduction in the 2023 T20 Blast.