Former cricketer Azeem Rafiq broke down to tears and raised his voice against racism. He revealed new details on the extent of racism in English cricket in front of a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
He enlightened some issues like being forced to drink wine in his cricket club. And he also named some prominent cricketers like Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Gary Ballance, commentator David Lloyd. Alongside current Test captain Joe Root to show how deep the rot is.
“I lost my career to racism. I don’t want my son to go anywhere near cricket,” a tearful Rafiq said during the hearing, for which he adjourned once to let him recover.
“Pretty early on, me and other people from an Asian background,” Rafiq told a House of Commons select committee overseeing sport, “there were comments such as, ‘You lot sit there near the toilets,’ ‘Elephant washers.’ They used the word P*** constantly. And there just seemed to be an acceptance in the institution from the leaders.”
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Speaking on specific individuals, Rafeeq said: “Gary Ballance walks over and goes, and ‘Why are you talking to him? You know he’s a P***.’ Or, ‘He’s not a sheikh, he’s got no oil.”
Rafeeq said Joe Root, while not having engaged in racist discourse himself, was not being truthful when he had said recently that he had never heard racial abuse, given that he was Ballance’s housemate. “To be clear Rooty’s a good man, he’s never engaged in the racist language.”
Players stand for Rafiq
Responding to a question Rafiq said Tino Best and Rana Naved, both overseas players stand up for him yet.
Although among other lurid details, Rafeeq disclosed how aged 15, they pinned down him. Furthermore pourd red wine down his throat.
“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. But I (then) didn’t touch alcohol until about 2012 and around that time I felt I had to do that to fit in,” he said.
