Ex England U-19 captain Rafiq says he has no confidence in investigation by Yorkshire county

Former England Under-19 captain Azeem Rafiq, who had made claims about institutionalised racism against South Asian players at Yorkshire cricket county, says he has no confidence in the investigation announced by the club.

Former England Under-19 captain Azeem Rafiq, who had made claims about institutionalised racism against South Asian players at Yorkshire cricket county, says he has no confidence in the investigation announced by the club. Soon after Rafiq made his claims that he had faced racist comments and treatment at Yorkshire county, the club chairman Roger Hutton had announced the setting up of a committee to probe into the allegations.

But Rafiq said he has no confidence in the investigation because the person heading the probe panel used to work for the club chairman. "The investigation was announced in the media that's all I know and we don't have confidence in the investigation. We have read statements but we don't have confidence because the person appointed to head the probe used to work for him (Chairman Yorkshire CC)," Rafiq said on the Cricket Baaz Youtube channel. Rafiq, however, said he will co-operate with the investigation because it's important to bring everything on the table to bring about a change in the system.

"The thing is the Yorkshire club has all the information for the last two years. I am feeling confident because I know I reported these things through the right channels," he said. Rafiq migrated to England from Karachi and went on to captain England U-19 team, including the likes of Joe Root, Joe Butler and Ben Stokes.

He had claimed that he was "close to committing suicide" during his stint with Yorkshire as he felt like an outsider and lost "faith in humanity" after the club turned a blind eye to his complaints of racist behaviour during his stint from 2016 to 2018. The 29-year-old Rafiq said the number of messages of support he got was evidence that there is a problem.

But when reminded that there were several players of South Asian background in the England team, Rafiq said, "Definitely this is not a problem in the England team but lower down it is a big problem. "The reason I am doing this is more importantly to help the next generation from racism if this happens I would be very happy." He said he was not saying that racism was there all the time during his stint with Yorkshire but maintained that it was a deep rooted problem. "Fortunately when I was captain, we had Jason Gillispie as our coach and he also belongs to a aboriginal background and in his presence the perpetrators didn't get a voice in the dressing room.

"I am talking about my experiences in my second spell which lasted for two and half years and there was racism disguised as banter. I heard a lot of comments like elephant washers, don't sit over there, they (South Asians) smell.. they stink… like these." PTI Corr PDS PDS PDS.

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