by The home of the Azeem Rafiq family was attacked last week, MPs revealed, as anti-discrimination specialists described “distress” over Colin Graves’ return to Yorkshire.
In another damning session before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the England and Wales Cricket Board also faced criticism for failing to “call out” Lord Botham after he claimed a report was “absurd”. criticizing structural racism.
John Nicolson, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, said that the whistleblower had told his team before the hearing that he had been targeted again.
He raised the attack after Cindy Butts, chair of the Independent Cricket Equity Commission, said “many concerns were raised” after Graves’ controversial return as chairman was approved at Headingley earlier this month.
Graves vowed to save the beleaguered county for a second time but Rafiq led complaints and urged sponsors to leave the club.
Appearing before MPs, Butts said “we are very grateful and we recognize that there is a lot of unease about what has happened in Yorkshire”. “I think, understandably, a lot of concerns have been raised by individuals, including Azeem Rafiq,” she said.
Nicholson then said: “At that point, actually, he told me that he told my team yesterday that the family home had been attacked again last week.”
Pending final confirmation by the Financial Conduct Authority, the 76-year-old Costcutter founder will resume the role he held nine years ago before leaving as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Much of what happened during the Yorkshire racism scandal is said to have happened under Graves’ watch. Graves apologized before returning to the club for a previous interview in which he suggested it was “banter”.
Butts attacked another outspoken figure, Lord Botham, after he claimed the equity report on discrimination in the game was “nonsense”. She put a separate question to Botham pointing out that he had not been given opportunities to add to the report, which she claimed was a “blueprint for change”.
“What I would say is that Lord Botham is right in his views,” she said, after Botham said he had thrown the report “on the floor”.
But she said: “I felt it was important to set the record straight on a number of different fronts. First, we invited Lord Botham to give us evidence. He didn’t answer. The county of which he is chairman, Durham, supported our call for written evidence and we thank them for that.
“He said he didn’t know anyone who contributed to our report when in fact, some well-known cricketers such as Heather Knight responded and gave us evidence. So there are some lies he has told about the report, but I think the most disappointing thing is that Lord Botham is the chairman of a first-class cricket county.”
Botham previously claimed he was not invited to contribute and did not know anyone who did.
“I read bits of the report and threw it on the floor in the end because in my eyes, it’s nonsense,” Botham told Simon Jordan’s Up Front podcast. “It was a complete waste of money that could have been better spent on other things within the game.”
Butts, however, suggested that his comments could undermine the “confidence” of those in the county who could suffer racism, sexism, class-based discrimination. “What confidence can they have if they are subject to discrimination, to come forward and be able to talk about their experience and have confidence that something could be done about it,” she said.
“So I was personally disappointed, especially because he’s a sporting hero of mine. In fact, I would say that Lord Botham’s influence on me as a young working-class woman growing up in Shepherd’s Bush was profound.
“To see his blossoming relationship with his rival Vivian Richards and the way they were both, but they really respected each other. And their friendship and love was clearly on display for all to see. That really impressed me. Viv Richards, fiercely black and consciously black, and he was an archetypal working-class white …. and being able to bridge those divisions. For me that spoke of the power of sport and the power of cricket so I was personally disappointed by that, in particular.”
Butts then turned on the ECB, saying she was “disappointed” the governing body had not called Botham. “Lord Botham, a first class cricket county chairman, his words carry weight,” she said. “The ECB never seemed to be able to come out and say, ‘this is wrong’. And I think they not only stayed quiet, they resisted calls from interested parties and people who were concerned [Lord] Botham commented and they chose to remain silent. I think they should have a moral backbone on this issue.”
The ECB later pushed back on the criticism, saying executives called Botham after his comments to raise concerns.
Asked about Butts’ frustration at Botham’s attempts to “destroy the work of the ICEC”, ECB chairman Richard Thompson said: “My first response was to ring up Lord Botham and ask him what why? And I think the ECB could take one of two views on that. My feeling is that we want to solve, we want to go forward and heal. Lord Botham is entitled to his views. I did not agree with them. I made it clear to him that I did not agree with them. But we live in a democracy and he is allowed to say those things.”
Butts later said “I have confidence in the leadership of the ECB”. “I think it is right and appropriate to give them the opportunity, as new people at the top of the helm, to make the changes we are recommending,” she said. “If they don’t, something else should happen. But it’s important to say that all the signs we have – and we’ve seen some of the evidence in terms of some of the things they’ve already introduced – give me hope that things will change.”
The Butts report took two years to complete and involved the experiences of more than 4,000 respondents. Half of them said they had experienced discrimination in cricket in the last five years.
