Azeem Rafiq, David Warner and freelancing in cricket
A collection of things I have done over the last week
The House magazine asked me to write about Azeem Rafiq.
On 1 November this year, a discussion broke out across the airwaves and social media: could the word “p*ki” ever be construed as “banter”? Obviously, most people agree that no, it could not.
This discussion came about because an internal report on racial discrimination within Yorkshire Cricket Club had apparently found otherwise. The report, in turn, was born of the legal and public efforts of a former player, Azeem Rafiq, to expose what had happened to him while playing there. He is soon to give testimony to the DCMS committee.
It would be easy to focus on Yorkshire, the bumbling cricket club, who, while they were mishandling the Rafiq case, also persisted in having Darren Lehmann as the coach of their Hundred team. As a player, Lehmann was once suspended for calling the opposing Sri Lankan team "black c**ts".
I don't want you to think this is just about players of Asian ethnicity and Yorkshire. Yes, four players have made complain…
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