If the ECB are serious about combating institutional racism in their sport, they do not stop with Yorkshire. The culture at Headingley should be the reference point as they then move through the counties.
For where are they, the British Asian players? They're in the clubs, we can all see that. Walk past any grassroots match, at any level, around any urban area, walk past any school game, and the Asian community is fully represented. In many clubs, they are the beating heart of it. The most dedicated, the most enthusiastic. Yet this involvement is simply not reflected in the professional sport, and it is the duty of the ECB to discover why.
Not to come up with a slogan or a T-shirt, or another campaign. Not to scratch the surface, as they so often do. To ask why the counties do not reflect the way the game looks when it is played in the park. To get to the root of this.
The Azeem Rafiq scandal highlighted the lack of British-Asian participation in county cricket
What we see on the football pitches of Hackney Marshes is a mirror to the make-up of most Premier League squads. Yet that isn't true in cricket. So something is wrong.
We're not talking the village greens of Middle England here. That's not where the counties are based. They're in Leeds, Manchester, Derby, Nottingham, London, Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Birmingham - cities with significant ethnic populations. In their local leagues, clubs will be driven by British-Asian involvement, and have been for decades.
It is estimated a third of cricket's recreational players are Asian. So why can we still pretty much name all of the Asian origin players at the top of our game? Why is it that just five per cent of county cricketers are Asian?
The ECB have the South Asian Action Plan 'to better engage with South Asian communities' and it means well. But this isn't a participation issue. Asians play cricket, but not enough of them professionally succeed. Given what we already know about the culture in Yorkshire, an investigation is needed as much as a plan. Coaches and executives summoned, tough questions asked. Too much follow-up from Azeem Rafiq's complaints has already descended into squabbles over procedure and, heaven forbid, who pays the bill.
Saqib Mahmood is one British-Asian playing county cricket - representing Lancashire
Yorkshire asked the ECB to co-fund their inquiry - the ECB wished to maintain their independence as a regulator. These are the debates we prefer to have rather than asking how a third of grassroots cricketers equates to just 22 British Asians professionally contracted in 2020.
Yorkshire's squad last season was 28 strong. Multiplied across 18 counties that's 504 professionals. If a third were of Asian origin, that would total 168 players. Instead, in the year Rafiq took his case to Yorkshire, 22.
Too many of you lot? It is hard to imagine a sentiment wider of the mark. The ECB investigate more widely or mirror Yorkshire's complacency.
UNITED RUIN REMEMBRANCE AGAINFor the second year in a row the marking of Remembrance Day at Old Trafford was a shambles.
The passing of Walter Smith was conflated with the dead of two world wars, as happened 12 months ago after the death of Nobby Stiles. So the applause that is the modern response to the loss of a great football man was in the mix with The Last Post and what should have been a brief period of respectful silence and contemplation.
Spending slightly less than a year as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson 17 years ago is not the same as giving your life so others could live theirs. It is an insult to merge the tributes this way. If football does not know how to remember properly, maybe better not to remember at all.
The Remembrance Day marking at Old Trafford was a shambles during the Manchester derby
Andrew Gale, now a coach at Yorkshire, stands accused of sending an anti-Semitic tweet when he was captain of the club in 2010. During some football chat with Paul Dews, then Leeds United's head of media, Gale sent the message: 'Button it, yid!'
Given the present crisis at the club, this has aged extremely badly. Gale has apologised and said he was unaware that the word was offensive. Yet is it offensive? The police don't think so, and the Oxford English Dictionary ruled it can be just a slang word for a Tottenham supporter.
If Gale had simply claimed he thought Dews had a season ticket at White Hart Lane, he would have been in the clear.
PLAYERS GOING BACKWARDS UNDER OLEOle Gunnar Solskjaer has been in charge of 4.7 per cent of the Premier League games played at Old Trafford, yet has been responsible for 21 per cent of Premier League defeats at the ground. Still he sails on.
Once again this weekend, we listened to pundits with Manchester United allegiances trawling through a familiar list of failings, while stopping short of advocating the change that might solve the problem. Players are going backwards under Solskjaer.
Manchester United's players are continuing to go backwards under boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, arguably the strongest of the young English right backs defensively, is now playing a wing-back role more suited to Reece James or Trent Alexander-Arnold, and is drowning.
Jadon Sancho has gone from a player who looked to be part of England's future to one who cannot make Gareth Southgate's squad. Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood have not improved at all, season on season.
Bruno Fernandes was a better player fresh from Sporting Lisbon. The longer he spends around United, the worse he gets. The worse they are all getting, in fact.
Bruno Fernandes was a better player fresh from Sporting Lisbon than he is now at United
Everyone likes Claudio Ranieri, but he's wrong about Arsenal's lack of sportsmanship. They had no reason to return the ball that was put out of play to allow treatment for Ozan Tufan.
It was kicked out by Danny Rose, who is a Watford player. Tufan is his team-mate. So it was Watford's choice to stop the game to allow one of their men to be treated. Why should Arsenal then give them further advantage?
Had Rose kicked the ball out for an injured Arsenal player, that is completely different. Sportsmanship, and good manners, dictate the ball should be returned to Watford. In this case, Arsenal took the throw, kept possession and eventually scored through Emile Smith Rowe.
