London
\nThe racism crisis tearing through English cricket took yet another turn late Thursday following the emergence of photographs of Alex Hales in blackface, with the batsman saying it had been a \u201ctribute\u201d to the late US rapper Tupac Shakur.
\nThe pictures were published by Britain\u2019s The Sun newspaper hours after former player Azeem Rafiq — whose revelations of the career-ending racism he suffered have sent shockwaves through the English game — admitted he had sent anti-Semitic messages as a teenager.
\nIn a statement, Hales told The Sun: \u201cIn 2009, I attended a New Year\u2019s Eve musical tribute fancy dress party. I dressed in tribute to my musical hero, Tupac Shakur, someone who I\u2019ve admired from childhood and, at the time, did not realise the offensive nature of this.
\n\u201cI echo my statement from earlier in the week and stress how much I deplore racism and discrimination in all its forms,\u201d added the 32-year-old batsman, who now faces a fresh investigation after being suspended by England for a second positive drugs test in 2019.
\nThis week Rafiq told a parliamentary committee that Hales named his black dog \u2018Kevin\u2019 due to cricketer Gary Ballance\u2019s use of the name as a derogatory term for people of colour, an accusation that prompted a \u201ccategorical\u201d denial from Hales.
\nHales\u2019 statement on Thursday regarding the photographs led Julian Knight, the MP who chaired Tuesday\u2019s committee hearing, to label the images \u201cincredibly disturbing and offensive\u201d as he warned \u201cthe very soul of English cricket is now at stake\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London The racism crisis tearing through English cricket took yet another turn late Thursday following the emergence of photographs of Alex Hales in blackface, with the batsman saying it had been a \u201ctribute\u201d to the late US rapper Tupac Shakur. The pictures were published by Britain\u2019s The Sun newspaper hours after former player Azeem Rafiq […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[422,196,421],"class_list":{"0":"post-228448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports","7":"tag-blackface","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-english"},"yoast_head":"\n