Azeem Rafiq

IT IS incredible to think that more than three years ago the world of cricket was rocked by allegations of racism. It was August 2020, and Azeem Rafiq, former Yorkshire and England cricketer, explained how he had been on the brink of suicide from the racist treatment he received. He told GG2 Power List that the fact we are speaking about it in 2024 shows how little the game, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Yorkshire County Cricket Club and others have been able to make progress. Indeed, with the reappointment of Colin Graves as chair of the Yorkshire club, under whose watch Rafiq was so horrendously treated, proves the game has gone backwards, he said. “I think about the repercussions because we don’t know where this could end up,” Rafiq told the Power List. “We really don’t, because this is going to empower a lot of racists out there.

I’ve made this very, very clear to the ECB. If my family or anyone’s harmed at this stage, it’s solely on the heads of the ECB and the game, because this is what decisions like this will create.” An inquiry found that Yorkshire’s former captain was the “victim of racial harassment and bullying”, upholding several of his com plaints. The Pakistani-born cricketer is still facing the consequences of his brave testimony. He has been forced to exile his family from his home in England.

The Power List knows the lo cation but is not revealing it. Rafiq explained why he was forced to leave. “It’s a worrying time in society, Islamophobia is green lighted and encouraged. For people of colour, it’s getting much worse. On a hu man level, it’s difficult to read some of the stuff, and it makes you anxious, makes you fearful. Some of the threats make you think what if someone follows through with it? It’s led to incidents at my parents’ house, but luckily for us, there’s no one there at the minute. I’ve visited Barnsley [his hometown] in the summer for a few days, it was difficult with people very openly wanting to physically intimidate me. “I find it difficult, I find it challenging. What frustrates me more is after speaking out in August 2020, with the appointment of Colin Graves, we’re going to be back to business as usual, which is pretty scary, right? But our society goes through the cycle of rage, with everyone suddenly caring huge amounts, and then everyone just gets on with their lives and you’re left to pick up the pieces.” To understand Rafiq’s angst, we must consider what he has been through since he publicly outed the club as institutionally racist.

His evidence to the parliamentary select committee fed into the long running independent Commission for Equity in Cricket inquiry. It led to many resignations at the club. Sponsors pulled out. Yorkshire became the focus of further in vestigations by the ECB. The club released a statement saying the former player was “the victim of inappropriate be haviour”, as the club offered “profound apologies” when some of the findings of the so called independent report came out.

It said that due to legal constraints it could not release the finding of the report in full. Rafiqcriticised the statement, and in an interview said York shire had downplayed racism by labelling it as “inappropriate behaviour”. In 2023, he gave evidence at the hearing into former England captain, Michael Vaughan, only to see his former colleague cleared “on the balance of probabilities” of using racist language towards him. Rafiq made it clear that it was never about personalities – it was always about the racist culture in the sport he loves. Despite the continuing threats and unceasing intimidation, the former cricketer believes his revelations were “worth it”. “What was the alternative?” Rafiq asked. “If it makes peo ple uncomfortable, that’s their problem, they need to do something about it.

The alternative, very simply, is watch ing my son being called a P***, or my daughter being racially abused, or being told ‘there are too many of you lot’. I battled with this after the hearing, but I look back and I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve done. “Having said that, I want to move to doing other things, and I will do other things... I’ve more or less come to the conclusion and acceptance that this is my life, and I’ll continue to carry on, no mat ter what it takes.” Almost immediately after his testimony to MPs in 2021, it emerged that Rafiq had made anti-Semitic remarks on social media when he was younger. The player apologised immediately and unequivocally said what he did was wrong. But it is a stick with which his critics beat him.

Rafiq said the Jewish community’s response has been ‘brilliant’ as he thanked them. “They invited me in. I got the honour of be ing a candlelighter at the Anne Frank annual anniversary lunch. I met a Holocaust survivor, which is the first time I knew anything about the Holocaust. I then wanted to go to Aus chwitz, which I got the opportunity to do. It’s so tough, so confronting, but I got to spend time with people who were strangers at start of the week, and arguably, some of them have be come friends for life. I now try and encourage people to visit Auschwitz,” he told Power List. “But for people that don’t want to forgive me, that’s fine. I know I’ve hurt people, so it’s for them to decide when they accept that. I will continue on my journey, and, hopefully, what I can do is bring two communities togeth er that are very similar in a lot of ways and face similar challenges.” Rafiq played for Yorkshire in two stints be tween 2008 and 2014, and 2016 and 2018, after making his senior debut at the age of 17. He captained the England under-15 and under-19 sides, and in 2012 became the youngest player to captain a Yorkshire side as well as the first person of Asian origin to do so. He was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1991, and he moved to England in 2001. He grew up in Barnsley in South Yorkshire and at tended Holgate School and played cricket for Barnsley Cricket Club and for York shire schools sides. We can expect more revelations in his memoir which had the working title It’s Not Banter. It’s Racism. The publi cation is likely to be at the end of April.