Former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq and former county chairman Roger Hutton will give evidence to a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport selection committee hearing on Tuesday.
MPs will hear from Rafiq after a report found he was the victim of “racial harassment and bullying” but the club said they won’t discipline anyone.
Hutton, person says “nobody in Yorkshire is racist” after stepping down as chairman on 5 November, will answer questions about Yorkshire’s handling of the case.
Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), will also give evidence on the ECB’s role in the racism scandal, complaints procedure and broader implications. for the game.
ECB President Barry O’Brien withdrew due to ill health. Also present from the ECB will be senior director of cricket Alan Dickinson, director of communications Kate Miller and Meena Botros, director of legal and integrity.
Former Yorkshire executive Mark Arthur, who resigned last week, was once expected to appear but was not listed, while cricket director Martyn Moxon has now been contracted out of work due to “stress related illness”.
When does it happen?
The hearing will begin at 09:30 GMT on Tuesday, November 16. Rafiq will give evidence first, before Hutton at 10:15 and Harrison from 11:15.
It will take place at The Wilson Room, Portcullis House – an office building in Westminster.
What could happen?
Those who give evidence to a committee hearing and the MPs who appear there are given congressional privileges, so they can speak without fear of civil or criminal action.
As a result, we were able to learn more details about Rafiq’s claims, including the names of the people at the heart of his complaints.
The full report has not been made public but it was made available to the committee for hearing.
New Yorkshire chairman Lord Patel said he “welcomes” the hearing and “will listen with keen interest to help us understand the past and address the many challenges that have come to light”.
Why did it happen?
The committee hearing was convened after the government was unhappy with the way Yorkshire handled the investigation and the delay in sharing the full report with Rafiq and the ECB.
In September 2020, after the initial interview with Wisden, Rafiq, who played for Yorkshire from 2008 to 2018 after moving to England from Pakistan at the age of 10, told ESPN Cricinfo The “institutional racism” encountered while at the club made him almost take his own life.
He told BBC Sport he dreaded “every second” of his career and a teammate used a racially derogatory term in reference to his Pakistani heritage.
Yorkshire opened a formal investigation into Rafiq’s allegations in September 2020 and Hutton said the club would carry out a “broader review” of their “policy and culture”.
In August 2021, three days after Yorkshire received the results of the independent report prepared by the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, they admit Rafiq is a “victim of inappropriate behavior” – what Rafiq says is downplaying racism – and sent him their “deep apologies”.
The report summary said Rafiq was “a victim of racial harassment and bullying”, with seven of the 43 charges upheld, although the club said it was unable to release the full report because legal reasons. They said there was not enough evidence to conclude the club was institutionally racist.
Rafiq asked a question What punishments have been given to former players and a coach who have been found guilty of using racist language. He also questioned the validity of the investigation.
A story published by ESPN said the report concluded that a racially offensive term used against Rafiq was considered a “joke”.
Julian Knight MP, chairman of the DCMS selection committee, called it “one of the most astonishing and disturbing episodes in modern cricket history”.
Knight’s comments came after Health Secretary Sajid Javid called for “heads” in Yorkshire and said that if the ECB did not take action, “it is not fit for purpose”. He added in a Twitter post that the term allegedly used to describe Rafiq was “no joke”.
How can I follow it?
The hearing will be available to watch live and the BBC Sport website and app will provide updates in a live written commentary.
