Azeem Rafiq has accused senior county leaders of dragging their feet instead of opening their arms in cricket’s push for diversity, saying he has been angered and frustrated by the continuing “resistance to anything that goes away from the status quo”, and that “it is becoming abundantly clear that the county system doesn’t want to welcome everyone”.
Rafiq’s stinging evidence to parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport select committee last November, describing his experiences of discrimination, was followed soon after by publication of the ECB’s equity, diversity and inclusion plan. But the 31-year-old does not believe there has been sufficient action in the months since, and the Guardian revealed last week that county chairs are now seeking to exert more power over the game, including a return to having two ringfenced seats on the ECB board.
“Since DCMS a lot has happened, but from some of the stuff I’ve heard it’s becoming clear that the counties don’t actually see it, they don’t get it. Not all of them,” Rafiq said. “Since I spoke I don’t feel enough has changed. I don’t feel there’s enough of an energy to make changes. I think there’s some good people trying but as a whole in the county game there’s still a lot of resistance to anything that goes away from the status quo.”
It was the Middlesex chair Michael O’Farrell, forced to apologise in January after telling the DCMS committee that British South Asians chose education over sport and that people in the “Afro-Caribbean community” preferred football and rugby to cricket, who wrote to the ECB on behalf of county chairs to suggest they be given greater power in a reorganised game.
“The fact you’ve got Michael O’Farrell leading it, after his comments, it’s difficult to stomach to be honest,” said Rafiq, who spoke after an appearance at the two-day Include Summit on equality, diversity and inclusion in sport in Birmingham. “I think what seems to have been forgotten by these county chairs is, we’re in this place because of institutional racism, because of a lack of diversity, because of the game not being welcoming to everyone. The data’s there. And actually, I’m struggling to find the words, but it’s quite frustrating and it angers me that they’ve used that pressure to power grab for their own needs.”
It was revealed on Tuesday that the ECB has set aside a budget of £1m to ensure that every county ground has a multi-faith prayer room before the start of the coming season. “It’s important, but I don’t think it’s a solution, far from it,” Rafiq said.
“It’s what happens in that prayer room that shows if there’s going to be change. It can’t be: ‘The ECB action plan says we must have this, tick.’ That’s what a lot of it feels like. I’ve been battling with whether it’s the ECB, is it the counties – where is the resistance? I’m not saying the ECB is great, far from it, but I think it’s becoming abundantly clear that the county system doesn’t want to welcome everyone.”
Rafiq now feels that his former county, Yorkshire, whose “woefully inadequate” response to his initial complaint of racism precipitated cricket’s inclusivity scandal, has become a positive example, despite the public resistance of Robin Smith, a former chair, to some of the changes introduced by the incumbent, Lord Patel.
“Yorkshire’s ahead of [other counties] because they’ve accepted something. The rest, there’s been no diagnosis,” Rafiq said. “There needs to be a diagnosis of how deep the problem is at every individual county, because you can’t find a solution before knowing the problem.
“The old guard are doing their best to stop it, and I think that’s embarrassing. These are people who have overseen an institution that has been proven to be institutionally racist. I’d tell them to look in the mirror, to be part of change, and be part of a Yorkshire which, as long as they get through the next few tough weeks, could really set an example of what can be achieved in a short space of time if there’s a real will to do the right thing.”
