Yorkshire Cricket Club

[doots]

Fuck me, not seen anyone so argumentative since Urmston was on here :-/

 

[jaiguruKun]

Strange that the word "Kevin" was used as a racist slur for black people. When I hear it I think or a ginger white fella.

 

[ROCKET80]

Of course they are, he’s been racially abused during them!

He wasn’t at the time but I do agree, expect a lot of cliched stock answers and evasion from Root until it blows over.. if it will blow over.

I thought you were you stating his general interactions, as alleged from the letter, were important (leading to him being racially abused).

I might be a bit off with the time lines but wasn't Root made England Captain in early 2017? and Rafiq raised his concerns with YCCC the same year and again in 2018.

This is purely speculation on my part but I wonder if Ballance's reputation was known throughout the game back then, as he hasn't played for England since the summer of 2017 (he was called up by Root that summer) and there have been calls for him to return to the squad over the years.

 

[Octavian]

I thought you were you stating his general interactions, as alleged from the letter, were important (leading to him being racially abused).

I might be a bit off with the time lines but wasn't Root made England Captain in early 2017? and Rafiq raised his concerns with YCCC the same year and again in 2018.

This is purely speculation on my part but I wonder if Ballance's reputation was known throughout the game back then, as he hasn't played for England since the summer of 2017 (he was called up by Root that summer) and there have been calls for him to return to the squad over the years.

We can’t be sure what Root heard but given how frequently the report stated it happened, I find it hard to believe he heard nothing. In his slight defence it may have appeared that Rafiq didn’t care, despite the fact it was killing him inside but then again if it happened with my pals, even if the Asian lad wasn’t bothered, I’d tell them to shut the fuck up.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

But you stated "but general social interactions throughout his time there are important". The letter should be completely dismissed.

It should be incredibly hard for Root to stay of it, he's the England captain and there should be huge consequences for an England captain that hears racist comments and turns a blind eye to it.

Root said he didn’t hear the comments. We didn’t know if he did or not but he hasn’t committed any crime. It shouldn’t be hard for root to stay on as England captain unless you are calling for a witch-hunt. Root might need to move on from Yorkshire though if the Club is in free fall.

As well as the intolerable racism in Yorkshire’s squad and management, they have hit the self destruct button commercially. There is a huge untapped potential to encourage loads of British Asian families into Headingley to support Yorkshire but that bridge has been burnt (for the foreseeable future).

It’s sad that people can’t just get on with each other. In some ways, racism will be even harder to eradicate now because we will see the creation of an industry, including lots of anti racism jobs that depend on there being racism.

A few years back, I commented on this forum about the increasing number of shithouses I would over hear in pubs / clubs who claimed that they never had the confidence to discuss immigration before Brexit. I reckon we’ve gone backwards as a society.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I thought you were you stating his general interactions, as alleged from the letter, were important (leading to him being racially abused).

I might be a bit off with the time lines but wasn't Root made England Captain in early 2017? and Rafiq raised his concerns with YCCC the same year and again in 2018.

This is purely speculation on my part but I wonder if Ballance's reputation was known throughout the game back then, as he hasn't played for England since the summer of 2017 (he was called up by Root that summer) and there have been calls for him to return to the squad over the years.

Root has never been in a position to select the England squad. Up until earlier this year when coach Silverwood was out in charge of selection, England had selected the team in broadly the same way for 120 years. Ed Smith had chaired the panel of selectors for tue vast majority of time they Balance had been omitted . Root would have had some influence but he didn’t call the shots.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

It appears “other-ism” will always exist. To suggest otherwise is foolish. The best one can hope for seems to be coexistence. There will always be situations where it will bubble up, but “polite society” will either squash it or sweep it under the rug.

For years, it was swept under the rug. Today, one appears to be in a political place where it has to be seen to be being squashed (even though most of it will still be swept under the rug!).

I can’t speak for, or about, any of the individuals in this whole mess, other than to say the whole “solution” will consist of people walking on eggshells, others covering their arses, and apologies all around. I’m assuming Rafiq will get a few bob out of it all and there will be a head or two that has to roll to feed the angry mob….and life will go on.

All of that said, it’s amusing to see some of the tabloid headlines…from the same rags that have given column inches and oxygen to any number of “groups” in the recent past.

 

[domalino]

I have had personal experience of it, see my earlier post, an Asian lad at work brought rap music into work where the N word was regularly used. It became a kind of banter, hey my N, yo my N, short story, he recorded it and went to a tribunal and trousered around 100k in garden leave, compo and severance pay, one of his colleagues told us later it was all premeditated, you’re naive if you don’t think that goes on.

What the fuck has that got to do with Azeem Rafiq?

 

[domalino]

His general social interactions during his time there are not important.

You seem to be putting a lot of stock in a letter from unnamed and an unknown number of staff about Rafiq's character.

Yet having been confirmed that racism was/is an issue at YCCC you believe Joe Root's statement about never hearing it?

Joe Root, who during his whole 10 year career at Yorkshire has played in matches, training sessions and shared the dressing room with Gary Ballance (and on International duty) but never heard him using racial slurs?

Only you and his mum would believe that.

The problem for Joe Root is that it would literally be impossible to not hear or see the racism that Rafiq describes.

Things like Gary Ballance shouting out racist stuff on the team bus on the way to games, or him and Hales calling all the non-white players Kevin in the England dressing room..its just not believable that he didn't see or hear that.

And that's before Rafiq said specifically that Joe Root was present on nights out when he was called P***.

I suspect he is going to come out and say he was wrong, he did see it but didn't recognise it for what it was until he heard Rafiq's evidence and he wishes he'd stepped in and done something. Moving forward, now he's a senior player and captain he's going to make sure nothing like that ever happens in front of him again.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

What the fuck has that got to do with Azeem Rafiq?

No comparison. He’s pocketed £200k