By Amlan Chakraborty
NEWDELHI – Yorkshire County Cricket Membership (YCCC) aspires to be a “beacon of hope” for variety in English cricket, its chairman Kamlesh Patel advised Reuters on Tuesday.
The membership was rocked by a racism scandal final yr after Azeem Rafiq, a former England under-19 captain of Pakistani descent, alleged that he had been a sufferer of institutional racism at Yorkshire.
Rafiq’s explosive testimonial earlier than a British parliamentary committee led to a sequence of resignations and Patel was tasked with the job of serving to the membership navigate the disaster.
“We realized from these errors,” Patel, who's in Mumbai to finalise YCCC‘s tie-up with an Indian firm, mentioned in a Zoom interview.
“We put buildings in place to make sure that we as soon as once more turn into the beating coronary heart of Yorkshire cricket and likewise be a beacon of hope…for fairness, variety and inclusion.”
Yorkshire was barred from staging worldwide matches however the ban was lifted after its members voted final week in favour of governance reforms.
“This can be a once-in-a-generation alternative the place an iconic establishment that’s 160 years previous has the power to all of the sudden have a large coronary heart assault however get well nicely and get well higher than it was earlier than,” Patel mentioned.
He likened the job to rebuilding a metropolis after a devastating earthquake.
“You'll be able to both rebuild town because it was earlier than, or you may construct a wise metropolis that’s very completely different, and I feel we selected the latter.”
Yorkshire has partnered Pakistan’s Lahore Qalandars and South African franchise Momentum Multiply Titans to supply abilities from various communities.
Now an Indian firm may have its model presence on the principle pavilion at Headingley Stadium and the kits of the Yorkshire ladies’s workforce after YCCC‘s two-year cope with Clear Slate.
Former England take a look at bowler Darren Gough, who was appointed Yorkshire’s interim managing director in December, is set to assist his former membership root out racism.
“To return again to Yorkshire… and try to flip it round and make us even higher than we’ve ever been and set an instance to the remainder of the world in sport is a chance I couldn’t flip down,” the 51-year-old mentioned.
Derbyshire all-rounder Anuj Dal feels Rafiq’s testimonial had made life simpler for cricketers like him.
“What Azeem confirmed in his testimony was that the South Asian gamers, and gamers from completely different backgrounds, now really feel as if they’ve acquired somebody there who’s spoken out about points which might be there throughout the sport,” Dal advised BBC Sport.
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