Azeem Rafiq could not suppress his tears on Tuesday as he provided a harrowing and emotional testimony of the bullying and racist abuse he suffered at Yorkshire.
Speaking at a digital, culture, media and sport hearing, the ex-England Under 19 captain accused cricket in this country of being institutionally racist and pointed the finger at some of its highest profile figures.
Rafiq, 30, struggled to keep his composure as he recounted his experiences of two spells as a player at Headingley, but explosively claimed at the hearing and then later in a written witness statement that:
The word ‘P**i’ was used constantly around the Yorkshire environment and was never stamped out. England captain Joe Root was witness to the racist abuse. Rafiq forcibly had red wine poured down his throat as a teenager by a cricketer who represented Yorkshire and Hampshire. Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon ‘tore strips’ off him on his first day back to work following the still birth of his son. 2005 Ashes winner Matthew Hoggard used to openly refer to him by the racial slur ‘Raffa the Kaffir’.
English cricket suffered its darkest day as Azeem Rafiq laid bare the horrendous bullying and abuse he suffered at Yorkshire
Speaking under parliamentary privilege during two hours of questioning by the select committee, Rafiq said: ‘I joined a dressing room full of my heroes, Michael Vaughan, Matthew Hoggard, part of the 2005 Ashes team. And it was just the most surreal moment for me.
‘Early on, me and other people from an Asian background … there were comments such as ‘‘you’ll sit over there near the toilets’’, ‘‘elephant washers’’. The word ‘‘P**i’’ was used constantly. And there just seemed to be an acceptance in the institution from the leaders and no one ever stamped it out.
‘All I wanted to do is play cricket, play for England, and live my dream. (Former England player) Gary Ballance would regularly make derogatory comments about my Pakistani heritage to others in front of me — ‘‘Don’t talk to him, he’s a P**i’’. This happened in front of loads of people, including Joe Root, it happened in front of coaching staff.
The spin bowler told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee racism was rife at Yorkshire and no one in leadership challenged it
He says the word 'P***' was used regularly and Gary Ballance would constantly use the term
‘It was Hoggy (Hoggard) who started calling me “Raffa the Kaffir”. At the time, I didn’t understand that it was a racist slur. It was only later I realised what “Kaffir” meant, how it was used, and that it was a racist term.
‘The comments from Hoggy towards myself and the other Asian players — Adil (Rashid), Ajmal (Shahzad) and Rana (Naved-ul-Hasan) — were on a daily basis, and all day, every day.’
He added: ‘After I made my disclosure to the media, Hoggy called me to apologise for what he had said to me. I respect him for that.’
Cataloguing the abuse, Rafiq, who is a Muslim, described how at the age of 15, he was ‘pinned down at my local cricket club and had red wine poured down my throat, literally down my throat,’ by a cricketer who played for Yorkshire and Hampshire.
Rafiq was released by Yorkshire in 2014 and felt settled, he said, when he returned under captain Alex Lees and coach Jason Gillespie.
Rafiq hit out at England captain Joe Root (left), claiming he was on those nights out where he was called a 'P***'. But he later
