PAUL NEWMAN: Gary Ballance MUST be banned, but not abandoned… and Yorkshire should lose Ashes Test

It had to come out. There was no way Gary Ballance could remain anonymous once it emerged that a ‘current senior Yorkshire player’ had repeatedly used the word ‘P**i’ to describe his team-mate Azeem Rafiq in what has been risibly passed off as ‘banter’. It is far, far too serious for his identity to have been protected any longer.

This is the tipping point for the whole sorry mess that has engulfed Yorkshire, all of it self-inflicted, since Rafiq claimed last year he had been racially abused in two spells playing for his home county. Everything will come tumbling out now.

Really, it is just the start. Sportsmail understands there are bigger names than the Zimbabwe-born former England batsman implicated in the sorry excuse for an ‘independent’ report commissioned by Yorkshire into Rafiq’s allegations.

Former England cricket star Gary Ballance has admitted calling his ex-Yorkshire team-mate and 'best mate' Azeem Rafiq a 'P**i'

Former England cricket star Gary Ballance has admitted calling his ex-Yorkshire team-mate and ‘best mate’ Azeem Rafiq a ‘P**i’

And Rafiq will have little hesitation in naming them when he gives evidence to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on November 16.

Any former player or coach who has been hiding behind lawyers for the past year or so in anticipation of being implicated will be powerless to stop him. Quite right too. 

Yorkshire are no strangers to crisis over the years but this is the biggest yet. Heads must roll, as health secretary Sajid Javid put it, for not only the failure in their duty of care towards an employee but also for their attempt to cover up their ‘crimes’ ever since. And it is not hyperbole to use that word either.

Azeem Rafiq claimed he experienced racism during his stint at Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Azeem Rafiq claimed he experienced racism during his stint at Yorkshire County Cricket Club

The report into institutional racism at Yorkshire ruled that the remarks were 'friendly banter'

The report into institutional racism at Yorkshire ruled that the remarks were ‘friendly banter’

HOW THE SCANDAL UNFOLDED

September 2020

YORKSHIRE launch investigation as Rafiq claims ‘deep-rooted’ racism at club left him ‘close to committing suicide’. Claims included people saying there were ‘too many of you lot’ referring to Asian players.

December 2020

RAFIQ files legal claim against the county, claiming he suffered ‘direct discrimination and harassment on grounds of race’.

June 2021

REPORT is delayed and Rafiq’s lawyer says the push-backs ‘create lack of faith in the entire process’ and that Yorkshire ‘risked legitimising racism’. Employment tribunal held but parties fail to resolve dispute.

August 2021

YORKSHIRE issue ‘profound apologies’ to Rafiq as report finds he was ‘the victim of inappropriate behaviour’. But they do not accept the claim of institutional racism — Rafiq accuses the county of ‘fudging’ his claims, promises to ‘not go away’.

September 2021

ECB are ‘very concerned’ with the summary of the panel’s findings, with Yorkshire admitting Rafiq was the victim of ‘racial harassment and bullying’. But just seven of the 43 allegations made are upheld.

October 2021

YORKSHIRE say they will not take disciplinary action against any of its employees after the report.

This week

ALLEGED details of the report are published, including a senior player’s admission that he used the word ‘P**i’ in reference to Rafiq, which was deemed ‘banter’. Health secretary Sajid Javid said ‘heads should roll’. Yesterday the player was confirmed to be ex- England batsman Gary Ballance. Sponsors cut ties with club.

What’s next?

RAFIQ, Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton and the county’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon will give evidence to the DCMS on November 16. ‘Time for the full truth,’ said Rafiq.

Principal among those who surely cannot survive this affair now are chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon, and no justification they can muster to the DCMS when they also provide evidence should be enough to spare them.

The suggestion, meanwhile, that former Yorkshire and ECB chair Colin Graves will somehow ride to the rescue by replacing current chair Roger Hutton is risible too. He was at the helm of the club when some of the abuse of Rafiq took place, for goodness sake.

Equally, there are also a number of high-profile former and current Yorkshire players and coaches who are completely exonerated by the report. Their names need to be made public too because otherwise the rumour mill will judge them guilty by association.

The most astonishing aspect of the revelations about Ballance, first made in a report by ESPNcricinfo, is that the investigating panel decided ‘P**i’ was acceptable banter and yet ‘Zimbo’ was offensive. If it wasn’t so shocking it would be laughable.

There is no doubt how offensive it is to label anyone a ‘P**i’. It was offensive when I first heard that word used in the 1970s to immigrant pupils in an East London school and it certainly has not become any more acceptable in the 40-odd years since.

‘Zimbo’, by contrast, is widely used to describe anyone from Zimbabwe and is, as far as I’m aware, considered by those from the country to be as harmless as ‘Aussie, Kiwi or Pom’. And if a diverse panel do not know the difference then they are unfit to be part of such an important inquiry.

Ballance has to be punished. Despite admitting last night that he regrets the language he used towards Rafiq — and he seemed genuinely contrite — he should be suspended for at least part of next season in a first step by Yorkshire to put right their many wrongs. But he also needs help and a player who in recent years has suffered mental health issues must not be abandoned by his employers nor the game. He needs to be educated.

But whatever punishment Ballance receives should pale into insignificance compared to what should face Yorkshire when all the damning details come out, as they assuredly will when Rafiq faces MPs complete with parliamentary privilege. 

The ECB, who have not covered themselves in glory in recent times, have to act decisively. It is impossible, for instance, to see how Headingley can stage England’s Test against New Zealand next year nor the Ashes Test they have been awarded in 2023. The ECB have a duty to strip Yorkshire — whose sponsors are leaving in droves — of those games. And that’s just for starters.

Now the ECB have finally seen the full report they must go through with former chair Ian Watmore’s pledge to charge the county with bringing the game into disrepute. And ensure lessons really are learned by a game craving greater diversity.

Meanwhile, the justice Rafiq has been seeking just moved a big step closer. But not until it is all out in the open, as it should be on November 16, can the scandal be fully addressed. And Yorkshire can then be properly dealt with for the whole shameful episode.

Sponsors have severed ties with Yorkshire over the club’s handling of Azeem Rafiq race row

Sponsors have severed ties with Yorkshire over the club’s handling of Azeem Rafiq race row

Headingley Emerald Publishing to withdraw financial support for Yorkshire worth £2.4m

Headingley Emerald Publishing to withdraw financial support for Yorkshire worth £2.4m

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