One of Scotland’s top cricket coaches has been allowed to continue in his job despite being found guilty of a catalogue of sickening racism.
John Blain was found to have repeatedly called Asian players ‘p**i’ or ‘p***s’ by the disciplinary commission last week. But the 44-year-old is still listed as director of cricket at the elite Grange Cricket Club in Edinburgh where he has worked since 2015.
Giving evidence former Yorkshire teammate Azeem Rafiq said: “John used the word ‘P**i’ a lot when referring to Pakistani people.
“He said it directly to me about other people and tried to justify it by saying it was like calling a British person a ‘Brit’.
“He used that word so often, and it was such a normalised language for him, that I cannot pinpoint exact matches or dates on which he used the word ‘P**i’, although I do recall that he would use it when we were training at Headingley.
“I heard John refer to Pakistani people as ‘Pakis’ when we were talking about some players in the Yorkshire League at the time…rather than apologise or stop using the word ‘P**i’, John simply said it was like calling a British person a ‘Brit’.”
Another ex-teammate Majid Haq, who contacted Azeem in 2021 regarding the former Scotland bowler, also spoke out. He said: “We both travelled to Kenya during January and February 2007 where the Scotland team was playing.
“John was looking at the wall. There was a picture of a team from Pakistan. On seeing this, John used the phrase, ‘Oh, the P***s played here’.
“John tried to defend himself. He said words to the effect of ‘No, P**i is quite similar to how Australians are called Aussies and New Zealanders were Kiwis’.”
Cricket Scotland was found to be institutionally racist in a damning report last year. It emerged 448 examples of racism and discrimination had been identified within the Scottish game.
A six-month independent review, published in July, had made a number of recommendations.
Solicitor Aamer Anwar played a leading role in exposing the scandal and has spoken out on the findings days after Scottish Cricket Chair, Anjan Luthra, stepped down over the failure to tackle racism.
He said: “My clients welcome the resignation of the Chair of Cricket Scotland.
“But there has also been a total failure to address the embarrassing fact that on Monday four minority ethnic members of the Equality Diversity and Inclusion group chose to resign, including an Asian female member of the Scotland squad – Abtaha Maqsood.
“They all delivered a damning indictment of Cricket Scotland in their resignations. The group was set up in the aftermath of the exposure of racism at Cricket Scotland and their complaints echoed those of my clients.
“Importantly Majid Haq feels vindicated by the finding of guilt by the Cricket and Discipline Commission against John Blain, a former Scotland cricketer and the current coach for the Grange Cricket Club, Edinburgh.
“The charges related to Mr Blain’s time working as a coach in Yorkshire Cricket Club, it related to the alleged use of racist and discriminatory language in referring to Asians as ‘p*****s” in 2010 and 2011.
“Majid gave evidence on behalf of Azeem Rafiq and has made similar allegations against Mr Blain, he is still to appear at the Scottish hearing into the allegations.
“My clients note that Mr Luthra’s resignation statement made no mention of the victims of racism who bravely spoke up, but they still continue to be abused and in some cases threatened, resulting in police involvement.
“In the last six months there has been a systematic attempt to exclude and silence my clients in the hope that they will go away and those responsible for the racism can just get on with cricket.
“Cricket Scotland remains branded as institutionally racist, the culture of ‘victim blaming’ must stop.”
Grange Cricket Club’s website says that they pride themselves on an “inclusive entry policy and encourage tolerance” as well as opposing “discrimination in any form”.
Both John Blain, and The Grange Cricket Club were approached for comment and were aware of the story.
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