“No question” Azeem Rafiq victim of racial harassment and intimidation

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Yorkshire accepted that there was “no doubt” that Azeem Rafiq suffered racial harassment and intimidation during his first visit to the county.

Last summer Rafiq made serious allegations about her time at the club, forcing Yorkshire to appoint lawyers to launch an investigation with an independent panel also set up to oversee it.

A summary of the panel’s findings and recommendations was finally released on Friday.

A statement from County President Roger Hutton said: “There is no doubt that Azeem Rafiq, during his first stint as a player with the YCCC, was the victim of racial harassment.

“He was also subsequently bullied. On behalf of everyone at YCCC, I wish to offer my sincere, deep and wholehearted apologies to Azeem and his family.”

Yorkshire said Rafiq made more than 40 allegations, seven of which were confirmed in the report. Those that had not were, in some cases, due to “insufficient evidence,” Hutton said.

The report had revealed that Rafiq, whose first stay in Yorkshire was between 2008 and 2014, was not given halal food at matches, which has now been rectified.

He found that there were three instances of racist language used prior to 2010 that amounted to harassment on the basis of race.

The report states that in 2012 a former coach “regularly” used racist language.

During his second period between 2016 and 2018, jokes about religion were made, which made individuals uncomfortable, he found.

Also during this period, reference was made to Rafiq’s weight and fitness which amounted to intimidation.

The report also admitted that the club did not follow up on Rafiq’s allegations at the time.

The final claim to take note was that on several occasions before 2018 the club could have done more to make Muslims feel more welcome in their stadiums and should have dealt better with complaints of racism and anti-social behavior in those stadiums.

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