Racism is the prejudice, discrimination, biases directed by an individual, institution, or a community against an individual or a community merely because of their race or ethnicity, especially the ones from marginalized or are in minority in the society. Racism is one of the many evils that have been engulfing the fundamentals and morals of society on an everyday basis since the evolution of human existence on this planet. A huge number of populations have to go through this discrimination regularly in institutions, workplaces; societies; roads and were not and because of this harassment and institutional discrimination some choose to end their lives and many get murdered as well.
A high-profile racism case came into focus where Azeem Rafiq, a 30 years old former professional cricketer, claimed “Institutional Racism” at Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Azeem Rafiq was born in Pakistan and came to England when he was 10 years of age. He has spent the majority of his career in Yorkshire County Cricket Club. He captained the youth team and eventually led the Yorkshire cricket team as captain in the year 2012.
In September 2020 he gave an interview to ESPN Cricinfo, where he came forward and talked about the discrimination he had to face and alleged that the institutional racism at the county club gave him a tough time mentally, and he was quite close to ending his own life. He talked about the consistent abuse, unswerving use of racist slurs, and language used for him and his Pakistani heritage during his two tenures with the club from 2008-2014 and 2016-2028.
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After the allegations made by Mr Rafiq, the club launched a formal investigation to look into the matter. A year later the club accepted that Azeem Rafiq was the victim of bullying and harassment and the independent panel confirmed 07 out of 43 allegations made by the ex-cricketer but also refused to release the full report for legal motives in response to privacy law and defamation. Rafiq expressed his displeasure with the panel findings and vowed to continue his battle.
In December 2020, Mr Rafiq filed a legal complaint against the Yorkshire Cricket Club for their direct harassment based on race and ethnicity. Yorkshire to which said that they are taking the allegations very seriously and having said that yet the reports were delayed to February 2021. Asma Iqbal, Azeem Rafiq’s lawyer, claimed by delaying the reports Yorkshire is only legitimizing racism.
By August 2021, Yorkshire failed to reach any conclusion with the cricketer and issued profound apologies, saying that the club has upheld several allegations made and claimed him to be a victim of inappropriate behaviour and refrained from admitting the club to be racist in their behaviour and working.
Rafiq alleged the club to be “playing with words” and “fudging this best way possible”. Azeem Rafiq’s spokesperson claimed that “Yorkshire was protecting the players and coach, who they now acknowledge used either racist language or were bullying’’.
In November 2021, the details of the reports were leaked and which revealed how fellow teammates were repeatedly using the word “P***” to address Rafiq and then conveniently called it a “friendly banter”. Garry Ballance admits that he was the one who used all those “racist slurs” while he was teammates with Rafiq but was never aware that it was causing this much distress to him. A heavy backlash followed, and many groups and associations ended their relations with the Cricket Club. England and Wales cricket association suspended Yorkshire from hosting any international matches until they meet the standards expected of an international venue.
Yorkshire Chairman Roger Hutton along with two of the board members named Hanif Malik and Stephen Wills resigned from their positions. Mark Arthur, The Chief Executive also resigned from his position. Later, England’s Test captain Joe Root made an extended statement and wrote that this episode has “fractured our game and torn our lives”.
Azeem Rafiq on the 16th of November talked heavily heartedly with moist eyes about the time he spent at Yorkshire and lost his career to racism.
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