by So when did the Yorkshire racism saga/crisis/scandal – take your pick – really start to rage? It is not about Azeem Rafiq’s first public speeches. That only brought initial silence from the club, then a lengthy investigation and a half-baked apology.
In fact, that changed in early November 2021 when sponsors severed their ties with the county and the England and Wales Cricket Board suspended international matches hosted at Headingley. The money was going to stop coming in and that, along with a lot of political unrest, gave it a new start. Lord Patel came in as chairman, the backroom staff were brutally slaughtered and hope rose for a new and inclusive Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Related: Colin Graves apologizes for racism at Yorkshire after takeover approved
Now, once again, money dictates the direction of travel – this time backwards, not forwards. Their annual report last year laid out the financial turmoil that has engulfed Yorkshire, with £3.5m spent addressing the “consequences of institutionalized racism against the club”, the payments and legal fees to change the crisis. So there was room for the man who saved the club in 2002, who was its chairman and took the same role at the ECB from 2015 to 2020. Colin Graves will return as the appointed savior of the club, subject to an Extraordinary General Meeting on February 2.
The purported choices make him look angelic. Mike Ashley’s previous big sporting project in Newcastle was met with bitterness and hatred; a dazzle with Rajasthan Royals would be another step in the IPL global takeover; and the noise of Saudi involvement was not comforting them either. So there’s something more palatable when you’re chasing the inclusion of Graves, who took it upon himself to rescue the county more than 20 years ago, apparently for the love of it all. “I’ve been a cricket nut all my life,” he said during the celebrations after Yorkshire won the County Championship in 2014. “When I knew Yorkshire were in the position they were in, I didn’t no way to sit there and watch it. go.”
He was well aware of these matters, and went public in an interview with Sky last June about his concerns regarding the club’s financial future. His views on the cultural calculation of the county caused even more concern. “I don’t believe it’s institutionalized racism in Yorkshire,” he said. “If people can prove it, fine, but I don’t think it’s institutionally racist as an organization. I don’t see it.”
It was central to Graves’ argument that the words were not said “on a racial, vile basis… I think there could be a lot of innuendo about it.” He said: “The world has changed, society has changed, it’s not acceptable. I understand that.”
This has been a common line in recent years from those who have tried to play down the problems at Yorkshire and elsewhere, reducing it to a tale of misguided, wrongly and retrospectively maligned one-room liners. Taking such a narrow view of the situation makes it easy to hide the problem of South Asian players still being under-represented at professional levels despite their more than significant presence in recreational cricket.
Next, we can set aside a discussion about the lack of South Asian representation in positions of power within the game. Once we’ve done that work, we can ignore the huge problems facing Black communities – yes, we’ll go there, across the board, because Graves not only ran Yorkshire but the whole English game too.
A few weeks after Graves’ interview with Sky, the Independent Commission for Equality in Cricket, drawing on responses from more than 4,000 people, found “widespread forms” of institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination across cricket in England and in Wales. Some will no doubt ask for more proof.
If we want to stay focused on Yorkshire though, we can. In 2015, as Graves made his way from Headingley to greater power at Lord’s, research at Leeds Beckett University, commissioned by Yorkshire Cricket, explored in part the relationship between the South Asian communities in Leeds and Bradford and the club. Among the conclusions was that, despite several attempts by the county to reach out, members of these communities “still believe that Yorkshire Cricket does not want or value ethnic minority participation in cricket”.
Graves says he has never seen racism during his time as chairman and no allegations have been made, but this is still a club that needs to do a lot more. Even the detractors should send him their best wishes. Yorkshire is still a great institution worth saving, a club that has produced greats and many more have come in a short space of time; Today, they are responsible for assembling the men’s middle order. But here’s the guy who’s coming back: don’t point out what’s happened to your club in the last four years; indeed, see that he has, in some ways, grown healthier.
The same annual report which highlighted the club’s perilous finances cited a 60% increase from 2021 in boys from diverse backgrounds in their county age groups. During Graves’ politics, the game has changed for the better. He should change with it.
