Azeem Rafiq is set to leave the UK following the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal. The spin bowler showed great bravery and courage to make his allegations against the club known to the world.
The claims were met with plenty of support from fans but there were also those who chastised him for going up against a longstanding establishment. Almost a year ago he gave evidence to a parliamentary committee, in which he said his experiences had left him feeling suicidal.
Rafiq, 31, born in Pakistan before immigrating to the UK aged 10, will now head for pastures new for his family's protection. "Twenty-one years ago, my dad picked us up and moved us because his business partner had been kidnapped and burnt,” he said. “Twenty-one years on, deja vu and I'm having to pick my family up and leave for safety reasons. That breaks me."
The revelations led to a wave of sackings at Yorkshire and a report concluding that racism in cricket was "deep-seated". Rafiq opened up on the abuse he suffered both in person and online since making the allegations and how his family have been targeted.
"I was away from home a few months ago and my parents' house got circled late at night [by someone] with what looked like a weapon in their hand and, to this day, nothing has happened on that," he said.
"That really started to raise my fears. There's been attacks - verbal attacks, social media - and it has got to the point where I've had to take the decision to take my family away from the country." He added: "For the last two years I have put the cause very much front and centre of my life and I will continue to do that, just in a different manner. I need to protect and take a little heat off my family."
Following his claims, the club launched an investigation and just seven of the 43 allegations made were upheld by an independent panel a year later. But the panel’s findings were not published and nobody was punished as a result. Following Rafiq's allegations of racism at the club, he pushed for the subsequent hearing to be made public.
His request has been granted and the ECB's Discipline Commission said the hearing regarding Rafiq's allegations against Yorkshire CCC would take place in public from November 28. However, the hearing could yet be held in private if any of the parties involved successfully appeal.
Rafiq has indicated he would almost certainly not participate if that happened, even though he expects a public hearing to be detrimental to him personally. "My view is I've gone through all these processes and been vindicated, yet I and my family continue to be put through some very awful situation.
"So, I'll go in another room, and I will be vindicated again, I've got absolutely no doubt whatsoever. But will that change my life? I actually think it'll make things worse. But we need to have these conversations for transparency and for closure. Let the world see it, what's there to hide? I've got nothing to hide.
"Is it going to be easy for me? Of course it's not. I'm going to be cross-examined by seven or eight different legal teams. But I just don't see an end unless that happens."
