Azeem Rafiq, the former Yorkshire cricketer, tearfully told a committee of British lawmakers on Tuesday, that he felt "isolated and humiliated" by the racist treatment he received while playing for the club.
Azeem Rafiq had accused the officials and players at the Yorkshire club of racist and biased behavior against Asian players and even the big name of Michael Vaughan has been accused of making racist comments and current England spinner Adil Rashid backed Rafiq’s claims.
An independent report found the Pakistan-born player was a victim of "racial harassment and bullying" while Rafiq himself said he had been driven to thoughts of suicide over the way he was treated.
Although the English county apologized, they said they would take no disciplinary action against any staff- a decision that was met with disbelief in many quarters and prompted the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport select committee to hold a hearing.
"I felt, isolated, humiliated at times. Pretty 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 Paki was used constantly. And there just seemed to be an acceptance in the institution from the leaders and no one ever stamped it out,” Rafiq told the committee.
Rafiq added: "All I wanted to do is play cricket and play for England and live my dream and live my family's dream. In my first spell, I don't really think I quite realized what it was. I think I was in denial."
He mentioned that he started taking medication due to his deteriorating mental health and left Yorkshire for the first time in 2014. In his second stint with the club, Rafiq said that he received support from then-coach Australia’s Jason Gillespie, but things worsened when Gillespie left the club.
"Jason left in 2016 and it just felt the temperature in the room had been turned up. You had Andrew Gale coming in as coach and Gary Ballance as captain. For the first time I started to see for what it was -- I felt isolated, humiliated at times. Constant use of the word 'Paki',” Rafiq said.
“Gary Ballance walks over and goes, ‘Why are you talking to him? You know he’s a P***.’ Or, ‘He’s not a sheikh, he’s got no oil,'" Rafiq recalled.
At one point the committee had to break for several minutes after Rafiq grappled with the emotions of recounting painful experiences. The Pakistan-born Rafiq, who is Muslim, described his distressing first experience of alcohol at the age of 15 after being asked about his drinking.
“I got pinned down at my local cricket club and had red wine poured down my throat, literally down my throat,” the 30-year-old Rafiq said. “The player played for Yorkshire and Hampshire. I (then) didn’t touch alcohol until about 2012 and around that time I felt I had to do that to fit in.
I wasn’t perfect. There are things I did which I felt I had to do to achieve my dreams. I deeply regret that but it has nothing to do with racism. When I spoke I should have been listened to. The game as a whole has a problem, with listening to the victim. There is no ‘yeah, but’ with racism; there is no ‘two sides’ to racism,” he said.
(AFP/AP inputs)
