Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves says he did not apologise to former player Azeem Rafiq for the racist abuse he suffered at the club because he “didn’t think it was appropriate” and "just had plenty of things going on”.
A parliamentary committee heard on Tuesday that Rafiq’s family home was attacked again last week, in the aftermath of Graves’s controversial return to the county.
The 76-year-old was chair of the club between 2012 and 2015, before being re-appointed earlier this month as part of a financial rescue package to secure the county’s future.
His initial tenure covered part of the period for which Yorkshire were subsequently fined £400,000 for failing to address the systemic use of racist or discriminatory language, following an investigation prompted by Rafiq going public with his allegations in September 2020.
While Graves “personally and unreservedly” apologised to victims of the scandal in a statement last month, he told a Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee today that he has never spoken to Rafiq to offer a personal apology.
“Certainly from my point of view, I didn’t think it was appropriate at the time,” Graves said, when asked by John Nicolson MP why he had not picked up the phone to the former spinner. “I’ve apologised today to Mr Rafiq and anybody else who experienced any discrimination or racism.”
Pressed on the matter, he added: “I just had plenty of things going on around not to pick up the phone to Mr Rafiq.”
Asked by Mr Nicolson whether that meant he had been “too busy” to do so, Graves replied: “Fine, if that’s how you see it. I don’t see it like that.”
At a previous DCMS hearing in December 2022, Rafiq revealed he had moved his family to Pakistan after being “driven out of the country” by abuse in the wake of the scandal, with one man defecating in his front garden.
On Tuesday, Mr Nicolson said the whistleblower had told his team of another attack on his family home in Barnsley only last week, though he did not reveal its nature.
Rafiq has led complaints against Graves’s return to Yorkshire and urged sponsors to desert the cash-strapped club.
Graves maintains that no instances of racism were reported to him during his first spell in charge but says he “profoundly regrets” dismissing claims of dressing room abuse as “banter” during an interview last year.
“I’ll apologise again today,” he told the latest DCMS panel. “Anybody from a minority ethnic background that experienced discrimination or racism at Yorkshire, that never should have happened. It never will be acceptable and it certainly won’t be going forward.
“I’ve apologised in my statement to everybody who experienced it. To Mr Rafiq, I haven’t apologised personally, no. If I had opportunity to talk to him, then fine, I would do because he should not have experienced what he experienced. I put an apology to him on [record] for what he experienced, yes.”
