LONDON
\nEnglish cricket must root out \u201cdeep-seated\u201d racism or face losing public money, British lawmakers said in a report published on Friday.
\nFormer Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq, 30, delivered harrowing testimony to MPs in November in which he said his career had been ended by the abuse he received at the county club.
\nThe Pakistan-born off-spinner, who had dreamed of playing for England, said cricket was blighted by institutional racism \u201cup and down the country\u201d.
\nThe fallout for Yorkshire over the crisis has been devastating, with sponsors making a mass exodus and the club suspended from hosting lucrative international matches.
\nThere has also been a mass clear-out at the club\u2019s Headingley headquarters, with wholesale departures from the boardroom and coaching staff while a new chairman, Kamlesh Patel, has become the face of a fresh regime.
\nThe parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee, in its report, said cricket chiefs had to act decisively to rid the game of racism.
\nMPs pointed to the language used in correspondence with the committee and attempts to \u201cdiscredit\u201d Rafiq in the media as evidence that a \u201clong and difficult road\u201d lay ahead.
\nThe lawmakers called on England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to develop a set of key indicators and then provide updates to the committee every quarter on its progress, or face a cut to government funding.
\n\u201cWe are watching closely and fully intend to ensure that cricket cleans up its act,\u201d the report said.
\n\u201cWe recommend that the government ensures that any future public funds for cricket are dependent on continuous, demonstrable progress in getting rid of racism in both the dressing rooms and on the stands.\u201d
\n\u2018Endemic racism\u2019
\nThe committee paid tribute to Rafiq for \u201chis conviction that this was not simply a personal issue but an endemic problem across the whole of cricket\u201d.
\nMPs set up the inquiry after Yorkshire announced there would be no disciplinary action taken against any individual despite an investigation concluding that Rafiq had experienced bullying and racial harassment during his stints at the county.
\nFormer players from Yorkshire and other counties have also said they faced racist abuse and an independent commission looking at discrimination in cricket has been inundated with calls.
\nSports minister Nigel Huddleston told the committee in November he was prepared to deploy the \u201cnuclear option\u201d of an independent regulator if the ECB failed to get its house in order.
\nLater that month, the ECB published a 12-point game-wide plan to tackle discrimination, with under-fire chief executive Tom Harrison saying an \u201cearthquake\u201d had hit the sport.
\nRafiq welcomed the report, saying it showed how seriously politicians were taking the issue and he said he was impressed with changes at Yorkshire under Patel.
\nBut he was less convinced about how seriously the wider game was on tackling racism.
\n\u201cI see Yorkshire trying to do the right thing, but I do feel like the game as a whole is still living in a lot of denial,\u201d he told the BBC.
\n\u201cI think the ECB needs to do more. I would say putting an action plan on a document, we\u2019ve seen all that before. We need to see more action.\u201d
\nDCMS committee chairman Julian Knight told the PA news agency that \u201cthe jury is out\u201d on the ECB and Harrison.
\nKnight said the committee would push for independent regulation of the sport if it was dissatisfied with the progress the ECB was making on the issue.
\nHarrison said he welcomed parliamentary scrutiny and wanted cricket to become the \u201cexemplar\u201d for others to follow.
\nHe said: \u201cWe have the opportunity to come out of this crisis with a roadmap that demonstrates that first of all we are absolutely serious about tackling discrimination in our sport — not just racism — and that we can come together as a game and do that as a partnership.\u201d
\nYorkshire could still face further punishment as a result of an ongoing ECB investigation into how it dealt with Rafiq\u2019s complaints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON English cricket must root out \u201cdeep-seated\u201d racism or face losing public money, British lawmakers said in a report published on Friday. Former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq, 30, delivered harrowing testimony to MPs in November in which he said his career had been ended by the abuse he received at the county club. The Pakistan-born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[196,421,965,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-238908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-english","10":"tag-racism","11":"tag-uk"},"yoast_head":"\n