Posted by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) yesterday suspended Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) from hosting international games. Headingley, a famous venue that’s seen historic wins will now not feature in schedules.
Azeem Rafiq, a Pakistan born off-spinner complained against Yorkshire on failing to have a right stance on his allegations of racism during his time with the county. A couple of months back in September, Yorkshire County Cricket Club chairman, Roger Hutton in his statement offered profound and unreserved apologies to Azeem and his family.
Roger Hutton, today stepped down from his post as chairman of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) citing lack of support from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and lack of care and contrition from senior management at the club.
Rafiq represented Yorkshire in two spells between 2008 and 2018, out of his 43 allegations, 7 have been upheld. He also said he had been driven to thoughts of suicide by his treatment at the club.
Yorkshire last week said, they would take no disciplinary action against any staff and termed abuse as banter, the public and media didn’t find it pleasing and rightly raised voices. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said they found this matter abhorrent and against the spirit of cricket and its values decided to exclude Headingley, Yorkshire’s headquarters in Leeds, of the right to stage a Test between England and New Zealand in June 2022, as well as a ODI’s with South Africa in July.
Gary Ballance admitted using a racial slur against Rafiq during their time together at Yorkshire, would be suspended indefinitely from England selection pending an investigation into his conduct. Gary Ballance apologised for his conduct in a nearly 900 words statement saying,”I regret that I used this word in immature exchanges in my younger years. I have to be clear that this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate.”
It’ll be a huge financial lose for the club with having no rights to host international matches, there’s still a lot that’ll unfold.
Bureau of sports 