Azeem Rafiq’s family home was attacked last week, an MP revealed, as anti-discrimination specialists described “unrest” over Colin Graves’ return to Yorkshire.
In another damning hearing before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the England and Wales Cricket Board was also criticized for failing to “summon” Lord Botham after he claimed a report condemning structural racism was “nonsense”.
Culture, Media and Sport committee member John Nicolson said the whistleblower had told his team ahead of the hearing that he had been targeted again.
He raised the attack after Cindy Butts, chair of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, said “many concerns” had been raised after Graves’ controversial return as chairman was approved at Headingley earlier this month.
Graves has promised to rescue the beleaguered county from financial oblivion for a second time, but Rafiq led complaints and urged sponsors to walk away from the club.
Appearing before MPs, Butts said: “we absolutely appreciate and recognize that there is a lot of disquiet about what has happened in Yorkshire”. “I think, quite understandably, there have been a lot of concerns raised by individuals, including Azeem Rafiq,” she added.
Nicholson then added: “At this point he actually told me that he had told my team yesterday that his family home had been attacked again last week.”
Pending final ratification by the Financial Conduct Authority, Costcutter’s 76-year-old founder will resume the role he last held nine years ago before leaving to become chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Much of what took place during the Yorkshire racism scandal is said to have taken place under Graves’ watch. Graves had apologized prior to his return to the club due to a previous interview in which he suggested what had happened was “banter”.
Butts also attacked another outspoken figure, Lord Botham, after claiming the equality report on discrimination in the game was ‘nonsense’. She took particular issue with Botham, suggesting he had not been given a chance to contribute to the report, which she said was a “blueprint for change”.
“What I would say is that Lord Botham is entitled to his opinion,” she said, after Botham said he had thrown the report “on the floor”.
But she added: “I felt it was important to correct the record on a number of different fronts. Firstly, we invited Lord Botham to testify for us. He didn’t respond. The county he chairs, Durham, contributed to our call for written evidence and we thank them for that.
‘He said he didn’t know anyone who had contributed to our report, when in fact a number of well-known cricketers, such as Heather Knight, responded and gave us evidence. So there are a number of untruths that he spoke about the report, but the most disappointing thing for me, I think, is that Lord Botham is chairman of a first-class cricket district.
Botham had previously claimed that he had not been invited to contribute and that he did not know anyone who had.
“I read parts of the report and in the end I just threw it on the floor because in my view it’s nonsense,” Botham told Simon Jordan’s Up Front podcast. “It was a complete and utter waste of money that could have been well spent on other things in the game.”
However, Butts suggested his comments could undermine the “confidence” of “those within the province who may experience racism, sexism and class-based discrimination.” “What confidence can they have if they are victims of discrimination, to come forward and be able to talk about their experiences and have the confidence that something can be done about it,” she said.
“So personally I was disappointed, not least because he is a sporting hero of mine. In fact, I would say that the impact Lord Botham had on me as a young working-class woman growing up in Shepherd’s Bush was really quite profound.
“To see his blossoming relationship with his arch rival Vivian Richards and the way they were both rivals but they had a deep respect for each other. And their friendship and their love became clear for everyone to see. That had a profound effect on me. Viv Richards, fiercely black and consciously black, and he was the archetypal white working class… and able to bridge those gaps. To me that spoke to the power of sport and the power of cricket, so I was personally disappointed with that in particular.”
Butts then turned on the ECB, saying she was “disappointed” that the governing body had “not summoned” Botham. “Lord Botham, chairman of a first-class cricket district, his words carry weight,” she added. “The ECB didn’t seem fit to come out and actually say, ‘This is wrong.’ And I think they not only stayed silent, but they also resisted calls from stakeholders and people who were concerned [Lord] Botham’s comments and they chose to remain silent. I think they should have had a moral backbone in this matter.”
The ECB later backtracked on the criticism, saying executives had called Botham after his comments to express their concerns.
When asked about Butts’ frustration at Botham’s attempts to “ruin the work of the ICEC”, ECB President Richard Thompson said: “My first reaction was to call Lord Botham and ask why? And I think the ECB could have taken two positions on that. My feeling was that we are trying to reconcile, we are trying to move forward and heal. Lord Botham is entitled to his opinion. I didn’t agree with them. I made it very clear to him that I did not agree with them. But we live in a democracy and he can say those things.”
Butts added: “I have confidence in the ECB’s leadership.” “I think it is right and appropriate that they, as new people at the top of the helm, have the opportunity to make the changes we recommend,” she added. “If that is not the case, something else needs to be done. But it’s important to say that all the indications that we’ve had – and we’ve seen some of the evidence in terms of some of the things that they’ve already introduced – give me optimism that things will change.”
Butts’ report took two years to complete and included the experiences of more than 4,000 respondents. Half of them said they had experienced discrimination in cricket in the past five years.