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I don't doubt racism exists in cricket but wonder how much of this is a continuation of the 'Gentlemen & Players' attitude.
I know local clubs who in the recent past have pretty much refused to pick/include very good players on the basis that they aren't one of us (he talked wrong, drove a delivery van). I am sure if he had had a different skin tone he would have had an equally hard time unless he had been a hospital consultant or partner in a law firm. It's not just racism that is destroying the sport it's small minded snobbery
Gentleman in cricket seems a bit far off right now
No happy ending for Tim Paine either Steve Smith for Australia captain?
Just watching Michael Vaughan being interviewed by Dan Walker. Squirming out of answering questions. Guilty as charged.
The anti Asian racism in yorkshire cricket has been well known for decades and its continues well below the county game
It almost became apartheid like in that there developed two different structure for recreational cricket - one asian and one white -because the asianplayer could not get a game otherwise
Vaughan was well known for his racism - not the deliberate type but the unthinking type
Not to try and make him a hero but I think it's worth noting how good Matthew Hoggard's response was to all this. He called Rafiq in person and apologised for his part in it, said he didn't realise how what he'd said made Rafiq feel at the time, but he was genuinely sorry.
Compare and contrast to some of these half-arsed or non-apologies delivered publicly via Twitter, possibly with consultation of a PR team.
Yet he still had to go back and look at his own messages to see if he really did say that because presumably he couldn’t remember.
And he has made the point about MV that he probably doesn't remember stuff he said IRL either because t wasn't important to him at the time.
Small sample size but I'm on a cricket fan group on FB and most of the talk from cricket fans and especially Yorkshire fans on there is of the 'PC gone mad'/'well he's a racist anyway how dare he' variety. 🙄