Former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq, during his testimony in front of a British lawmakers committee with regards to the racism accusations he levied against the club, said that he was hurt by his former club teammate and England captain Joe Root pleading ignorance to the rampant racism in the club.
Rafiq was giving evidence of intolerable insults by his former teammates at Yorkshire to the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) committee on sports governance during the parliamentary hearing at Portcullis House in London on Tuesday (November 16).
While Rafiq called Root a good man, he expressed disappointment at the England Test skipper for pleading ignorance to what he described as "institutional racism". He questioned the England cricket establishment where people tend to forget the racism that exists.
Root had recently said that the racism scandal at his county Yorkshire has "fractured our game and torn lives apart".
"Rooty is a good man. He has never engaged in the racist language. I found it hurtful because Rooty was Gary Ballance's housemate. Maybe he didn't remember it, but it just shows the institution that a good man like him cannot remember those things,” Rafiq said at the hearing.
He gave disturbing details of ill-treated and biassed treatment because of his Pakistani roots from his playing days to a parliamentary inquiry.
Rafiq said in emotional testimony to the parliamentary DCMS panel: “Pretty early on, me and other people from an Asian background. There were comments such as, ‘You lot sit there near the toilets,’ ‘Elephant washers.’ The word P*** was used constantly. And there just seemed to be an acceptance in the institution from the leaders and no one stamped it out.”
He further told a House of Commons select committee overseeing sport that he felt “isolated, humiliated at times” by his treatment at Yorkshire during two spells at the club from 2008 to 2018.
Revealing the term "Kevin", Rafiq said that this was a derogatory word used by Gary Ballance to describe non-white teammates.
He added, “It was an open secret in the England dressing room. Anyone who came across Gary would know that was a phrase he would use to describe people of color. 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’.”
England international Gary Ballance admitted earlier this month that he called Rafiq a 'Paki' (referring to his Pakistani origin) during the pair's time together at Yorkshire but maintained it was done "in the spirit of friendly banter".
Rafiq, a Muslim, also revealed that he was pinned down in a car and had wine poured down his throat by another player, who played for Yorkshire and Hampshire when he was playing for his local cricket club at 15. Rafiq also claimed he had lost his career to racism.
On the first incident, Rafiq revealed: “I got pinned down at my local cricket club and had red wine poured down my throat, literally down my throat. 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.”
The Pakistan-born cricketer further added, “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 are no ‘two sides' to racism.”
He signed off by saying, “Do I believe I lost my career to racism? Yes, I do. Hopefully, in five years' time, we're going to see a big change and I can look back at it that I did something that is far bigger than any runs I got or any wickets I got. But it's horrible, it hurts.”
(With AP Inputs)
