It has been a whirlwind since I appeared in front of MPs almost two months ago, and what Yorkshire and Lord Patel have done to bring change is definitely a step in the right direction.
That is why I believe the time is right to say they should be given back the international cricket so vital to their very survival. The people of Yorkshire should be able to watch England in Test and white-ball games at Headingley this summer.
The county had been very reluctant to implement any sort of change during my time at the club, and since then when I highlighted everything that had happened to me there. And that is why we were here in the first place.
It has been a whirlwind since I appeared in front of MPs at a select committee two months ago
But if we are asking an institution to look at itself then we should recognise when it begins to show it is genuinely sorry and attempts to start putting things right. Yorkshire need to be supported and helped to move in that right direction.
They do seem willing to do the right thing now. Hopefully their actions under new chair Lord Patel have shown that. They have given me a little bit of hope ahead of the report from that day in parliament in front of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, due to be released shortly.
Much has happened since then and I must thank Julian Knight, chair of the DCMS select committee, for giving me that platform to tell everyone what had gone on. I never expected things to go as far as that.
I should also acknowledge the work of Leeds MP Alex Sobel, Nav Mishra who raised the issue in the House of Commons, and Baroness Morgan, the former Culture Secretary.
I knew things would be thrown at me afterwards and I have always said I am not perfect and I have made mistakes of my own. I bitterly regret making the anti-Semitic comments that emerged from when I was younger, for instance, and I am trying to learn from those mistakes. The Jewish community have been so kind to me.
But I’m not interested in mud-slinging. This is not just about me or any individual caught up in it. There is a much bigger picture. Lord Patel was honest with me when I first met him after the inquiry. He told me it might take months to sort things out and I feel he has always tried to do the right thing.
Lord Patel, the new chairman at Yorkshire, is making a huge effort to help turn things around
The right thing includes appointing Darren Gough as director of cricket. It’s no secret we are friends since he was one of my first captains and we have always stayed in touch. I’m encouraged by his involvement, not least because the game needs people like him back directly involved. Goughie will get things done.
It just seems outside the county everyone wants to throw the book at Yorkshire and my concern is some want to do that in order to make themselves look better or deflect attention away from their issues. I don’t agree with that because it will not drive change.
My message to any county who believe they can ignore this as Yorkshire’s
