Spot on. Absolute disgrace from Yorkshire. They have handled this woefully and even classed racism and bullying as banter which is a joke.

So glad the sponsors have dropped out of this joke outfit.

Heads needs to roll.

Terrible state of affairs

I’m glad the sponsors have got some balls

not remaining silent is a good start....
HATS OFF TO YOU RAFIQ

Yorkshire CCC have had many Black and Asian players over the years, it is interesting that none of those have come forward with any similar allegations.

Also, why has Rafiq waited for all these years to make a complaint. It seems he was happy to exchange in various light hearted dressing room banter with his mates like Garry Ballance, but has only now decided to take offence to it.

Seems this bloke now has an axe to grind for whatever reason. Only a snowflake with a chip on their shoulder would take offence at dressing room banter.

The state of this country these days.

They’ve not had many black or Asian players over the years, they’re fans were proud that the squad was made up of white players from Yorkshire

comment by ● Billy The Yidd ● 2020* 2021* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 53 minutes ago
Yorkshire CCC have had many Black and Asian players over the years, it is interesting that none of those have come forward with any similar allegations.

Also, why has Rafiq waited for all these years to make a complaint. It seems he was happy to exchange in various light hearted dressing room banter with his mates like Garry Ballance, but has only now decided to take offence to it.

Seems this bloke now has an axe to grind for whatever reason. Only a snowflake with a chip on their shoulder would take offence at dressing room banter.

The state of this country these days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All these years? It literally relates to when he was a player in 2018 and he brought it to public attention in 2020 after Yorkshire did nothing when he brought it up to them internally back in 2018

Yorkshire's own dodgy investigation even found that he was a victim of bullying and racism but didn't recommend any punishment to the players, and deliberately kept missing deadlines and keeping their investigation hush hush.

No idea how you can possibly defend Yorkshire here.

comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 8 minutes ago
They’ve not had many black or Asian players over the years, they’re fans were proud that the squad was made up of white players from Yorkshire
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah I remember there was outrage when signed Sachin for a year. They didn't want any brown players playing for them.

comment by (K̇ash) I'm the Mané - Free Palestine 🇵🇸 (U1108)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 8 minutes ago
They’ve not had many black or Asian players over the years, they’re fans were proud that the squad was made up of white players from Yorkshire
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah I remember there was outrage when signed Sachin for a year. They didn't want any brown players playing for them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nobody from outside Yorkshire. The colour of skin was irrelevant.

The racism thing isn’t even the issue itself. You look at what happened to the black English players and anyone that goes to cricket or lays cricket or any other sport in grassroot level has experienced or seen it happen. Fact. Society issue rather than a specific incident. You look at Billy’s comment above as an example - the ignorance and lack of awareness is obvious to see


What’s worse is Yorkshire’s response. The denial and the sheer arrogance. They are literally delusional and not living in 2021. the lack of basic transparency is denying pretty much everyone 'specific knowledge of what actually went on.' Until we have that transparency, it's going to get worse.

comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 17 minutes ago
They’ve not had many black or Asian players over the years, they’re fans were proud that the squad was made up of white players from Yorkshire
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tino Best, Nicholas Pooran, Sachin Tendulkar, Younis Khan, Cheteswar Pujara, Richie Richardson, Ajmal Shazhad, Lesroy Weekes, Yuvraj Singh, Sarfraz Ahmed, Jeet Raval, Naved Ul Hasan, Inzaman Ul Haq, Imran Tahir etc.

Yep, they`ve not had many Black or Asian players at all

Also Yorkshire were already struggling financially, given most of their top sponsors have done a runner, you feel this will hurt in the long run. Can’t see how they recover short-term. But the old aged board members will move on to pastures new (without giving a fekk) - will only hurt the fans in and around Yorkshire.

Billy,

Appears you know fek all about Yorkshire. Could name you many incidents of these players being involved in racist slurs… go to your own research. One example here

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/cheteshwar-pujara-was-called-steve-at-yorkshire-racist-reference-to-people-of-colour-reveals-former-staff/articleshow/79578179.cms

This is certainly a problem and Yorkshire have handled it poorly. They're making themselves look worse at every opportunity and their continuation in doing nothing is shocking.

The situation with Ballance feels classic to me. The lads in the dressing room say it's banter because they had a good laugh about it but did it go both ways or was Rafiq the subject of the banter?

I don't know how he can have an axe to grind if Yorkshire themselves found that Rafiq was subject to bullying and racism. It's not like he's completely made it up and his accusations have been found to be false. He's spoken out about how he was close to suicide because of what happened so to find that Yorkshire are doing absolutely nothing on the back of this must be soul destroying for him knowing that it's extremely likely that this culture will carry on because no action has been taken.

It is a sad state of affairs when somebody takes offence at being called Steve because they can`t pronounce his name properly, that is light hearted banter with no malice whatsoever and only a snowflake with a chip on their shoulder would take offence at that.

I suspect Rafiq has seen an opportunity for financial damages and will be laying it on as thick as possible, and what better time to bring this up with the current state of this country.

As we know, you can`t fart in the direction of a person of colour without being labelled racist these days.

Yeah, all this is because they've been calling him Steve

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour from Yorkshire to be honest.

The ‘light hearted banter’ is just the tip of the iceberg. There seems a much deeper problem there and now this is the straw that the apologists will clutch on to.

In no workplace have I ever seen using these phrases as light hearted banter anyway. How many people would use the N word in their workplace or even at a work dinner?

Would even your parents have used it 30 years ago at a work dinner?

Even then there’s a much bigger issue there and there needs to be accountability. All we’ve heard so far is a lot of hot air.

One slight criticism I do have with Rafiq is he should’ve said it straight away. The first time someone mentioned the word he should’ve put his foot down and said he didn’t like it.

comment by ● Billy The Yidd ● 2020* 2021* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 10 minutes ago
It is a sad state of affairs when somebody takes offence at being called Steve because they can`t pronounce his name properly, that is light hearted banter with no malice whatsoever and only a snowflake with a chip on their shoulder would take offence at that.

I suspect Rafiq has seen an opportunity for financial damages and will be laying it on as thick as possible, and what better time to bring this up with the current state of this country.

As we know, you can`t fart in the direction of a person of colour without being labelled racist these days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You should really quit whilst you're ahead, or at the very least read the various reports before making comments.

"The player also admitted to telling other people "don't talk to him [Rafiq], he's a P**i", asking "is that your uncle?" when they saw bearded Asian men and saying "does your dad own those?" in reference to corner shops.

Despite admitting recalling that Rafiq broke down in tears at one point, the player insisted he had no idea he was causing offence and would have stopped if Rafiq had asked."

Just harmless banter

I don't think it's fair to level that criticism at Rafiq, victims of abuse don't find it easy to speak out even though they know it's wrong. It always feels easy for us to say "they should speak out straight away" but when you're in these positions, it doesn't feel simple and there are many reasons why a person won't speak out about it.

He deserves credit for having the bravery to speak up about it now as one of the things that becomes harder in these situations is people end up not believing them because they didn't speak out about it straight away.

comment by The Welsh Xavi (U15412)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by ● Billy The Yidd ● 2020* 2021* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 10 minutes ago
It is a sad state of affairs when somebody takes offence at being called Steve because they can`t pronounce his name properly, that is light hearted banter with no malice whatsoever and only a snowflake with a chip on their shoulder would take offence at that.

I suspect Rafiq has seen an opportunity for financial damages and will be laying it on as thick as possible, and what better time to bring this up with the current state of this country.

As we know, you can`t fart in the direction of a person of colour without being labelled racist these days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You should really quit whilst you're ahead, or at the very least read the various reports before making comments.

"The player also admitted to telling other people "don't talk to him [Rafiq], he's a P**i", asking "is that your uncle?" when they saw bearded Asian men and saying "does your dad own those?" in reference to corner shops.

Despite admitting recalling that Rafiq broke down in tears at one point, the player insisted he had no idea he was causing offence and would have stopped if Rafiq had asked."

Just harmless banter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah I read about this after my earlier post about whether Rafiq was the subject of the banter and this pretty much confirms it especially with Ballance just coming out with a public apology to make himself feel better rather than denying any of it.

Absolutely he is brave to speak out and I’m so glad he did.

However, I just feel in the 2018 (or whenever it happened), it shouldn’t be Earth shattering to simply say ‘that’s enough’. I can appreciate the fact that you may be the one guy in the minority saying it, but I do feel that there’s this attitude of accepting things too much which means he suffers more and it also signals to the perpetrators that it is acceptable for them to say these things and unfortunately when that happens, people will say it more.

This doesn’t mean that I think it’s Rafiq’s fault at all, it’s a slight criticism I have.

However, he has now spoken out and it’s clear what’s been happening and no accountability at all. Pretty sad state of affairs.

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/cricket/12459497/atherton-and-hussain-discuss-rafiq-racism-case


Nasser and Athers been discussing this today - spot on as always!

I think one of the worst things too is Yorkshire said they found Rafiq had called a player form Zimbabwe (presumably Ballance) "Zimbo" and that were Rafiq still at the club he would have faced disciplinary action.

So calling someone "P@ki" is fine and just banter, calling someone "Zimbo" requires disciplinary action.

Laughable how badly they've handled this.

Fair enough and yeah I fully agree, when it came out the other day that and I'm paraphrasing Yorkshire's statement, but something along the lines of "we are pleased to announce that after finding Rafiq was the victim of bullying and racial abuse, no player, coach, board member etc will face any action and the matter is closed"

The backlash is obviously been big which I'm pleased to see in terms of it's now just being swept under the carpet and now Yorkshire have called an emergency board meeting. I wouldn't be surprised if Ballance gets the sack or something so they can be seen as doing something but the reality is, they did nothing originally and will this be enough? They're only potentially looking to act now because they're being hit financially.

Ballance has also said that things were said in both directions between him and Rafiq, I will be surprised if we find out what was said to Ballance though, given he will not feel the need to divulge and the current narrative.

Ballance also said that this banter was exchanged back in his younger days, which implies it was a lot earlier than 2018, given that Ballance and Rafiq played together from around 2008.

In my opinion there is a line between banter and abuse, and unfortunately one man`s banter is another man`s abuse.

If you have a muppet like Sajid Javid calling you out for racism - it must be bad. Really really bad.