Essex cricketer says he was nicknamed bomber by teammates after 9/11

The chairman of Essex County Cricket Club has resigned following a historic allegation that he used racist language a board meeting four years ago.

John Faragher, who strongly denies the incident, stepped down from his role as chair with immediate effect after the Essex board unanimously accepted his resignation on Thursday night.

The first-class county cricket club are intent on reviewing why the incident was not fully and independently investigated at the time.

It comes after Yorkshire’s former chair Roger Hutton and chief executive Mark Arthur both resigned in recent days following former player Azeem Rafiq’s claims of institutional racism at Headingley.

In a statement, Essex said it ‘does not tolerate discrimination of any kind and will immediately consider further steps the Club must take’. 

Addressing the allegations of racism against Faragher, who has been Essex’s chair since 2016, the new chief executive John Stephenson said there is ‘no place for discrimination of any kind’ at the club.

He added: ‘This is a proud club with a zero-tolerance policy towards racism and any form of discrimination and, as Essex Cricket’s new chief executive officer, I will not hesitate to uphold those principles and drive out any form of discrimination that is uncovered.’ 

Mr Stephenson, who only took over the day-to-day running of Essex in October, said he first found out about the alleged incident said to involve Faragher this week. 

He said: ‘I was made aware of this single allegation on Thursday having joined the club four weeks ago.  The board met last night [Thursday] during which John Faragher’s resignation was unanimously accepted by the board. 

‘We are committed to working with the England & Wales Cricket Board to eradicate discrimination from the game.

‘This is an important first step, but the club must now act further. Our internal reporting mechanisms will be reviewed to ensure that matters such as this are dealt with appropriately and immediately. I intend for those next actions to be communicated as soon as possible.’

The England and Wales Cricket Board has opened an investigation into the incident after a complaint was initially taken up with the governing body.

An ECB spokesperson said: ‘There is absolutely no place for racism or any form of discrimination in our game.

‘The England and Wales Cricket Board opened an investigation into Essex County Cricket Club after receiving an allegation involving John Faragher, who has subsequently resigned as the club chair. The ECB is taking this allegation extremely seriously.’