The Mishcon Academy Digital Sessions
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
Last November you gave all evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee – so the DCMS – in relation to their enquiry into sports governance. So, the DCMS’s conclusion was we have a young man who had his dreams shattered by institutional racism, bullying and abuse. I remember when I first saw the headlines last August and quite frankly still now, I’m just heartbroken by what’s happened to you. So, I’m in equal measures delighted and sad to have you here to share your story, which is a really important story for us to hear. The purpose of our conversation is threefold. So, first, to explore what happened. Second, to understand why this ended up at DCMS’s door and third, and perhaps most importantly, to talk about whether this is the turning point. Can you tell us about some of the examples of the types of behaviour you faced which led to DCMS coming to that conclusion?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
Moving to Barnsley from Pakistan, July 2001 we came to the UK and then I remember it 31 October 2001, moved to Barnsley. Straight after 9/11 I think everyday life, school, racism, hearing the word ‘Paki’ had become very normalised and it was part of any person of colour growing up in the UK, part of their life. Cricket at the start was actually a nice escape, somewhere I got a bit of respect, I felt, somewhere I could be myself and somewhere where I could flourish but as we sort of start playing and get into it, pretty early on as a fifteen year old at my local cricket club, I got pinned down and red wine poured down my throat, which, yeah, pretty, I mean I look back at it and I wish I’d said something at the time but I can see why I didn’t because if I’d gone home and told my dad, I would have never played the game ever again. And then as I go to the Yorkshire and come to the professional ranks and is started, there was a time where I started trying to fit in because all I wanted to do was play cricket for England. Initially, when I first went into that environment, I’d say I was confident but religious, religious guy but as it became clear that unless I started doing some of the things which is against my religion – drinking, going out – that I wouldn’t progress and slowly, without even realising, I started doing them things but even then I remember being on nights out and my team mates coming up and saying “Why are you talking to him, he’s a Paki” and that, I remem… like I said, as I look back now, I was left outside crying a lot of the times. Then you had a game pretty early on in my career, I played with some of my biggest heroes, some people I’d watched on TV and as you walk onto the field you get a comment, “There’s too many of you lot. We need to have a word about it.” Now, none of my testimony or when I’ve spoken have I said that any other stuff was done in a malice way but slowly, slowly it was clearly chipping away at me and even without me realising from 2014 onwards, I was on citalopram, really struggling but not knowing why I am struggling and like I said, it wasn’t until right at the end that it became clear to me what it was that I was going through.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
Let’s now talk about why this ended up at DCMS’s door. So, if I went background you were at Yorkshire Cricket Club from 2008 to 2018, so roughly ten years and you spoke up whilst at Yorkshire Cricket Club and you spoke out in 2020. Many of us, specifically me, admire you. You were brave enough to stick your head above the parapet and call out the wrong. What gave you the determination to do that?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
When I first raised a complaint was in 2017 while I was still at the club and like I said, until right at the end, even as people of colour will relate to me here, you don’t want to believe that you’re being treated differently because of your colour or because of your religion because then you start seeing everything that way and it’s really difficult, it’s draining. So, clearly, until 2017 when I first raised a complaint, even then I raised it as bullying initially and then it was really in 2018 when I lost my son and the treatment I got around that, like I said at DCMS, pretty inhuman and it was at that point that I couldn’t, I’d been… I looked at myself and I thought I’m looking the other way here. I’ve seen lads, different… my team mates have tragedies, as people do in life and the support has been above and beyond and here I am going through a pretty difficult twelve months, well like the pregnancy and then eventually losing my son and my first day back, I get brought into a room and literally ripped the shreds off me from the Director of Cricket and I’m like hold on a minute, this is not right and at that point I was like this is, I’m being treated differently here because of my race and my religion. Even at that point, I raised it internally. I went and had a meeting with the Director of Cricket, the Chief Executive, I had a PCA Board Member – Professional Cricketers Association – who I thought was on my side but which later became very clear that he wasn’t, and a friend. And I just spoke my heart. I’d been to the house of the Inclusivity and Diversity board member, literally cried my eyes out and all I wanted was a few answers as to why certain things happen and then how we were going to make sure it didn’t happen again and they got rid of me seven days later. At that point I was in no fit state to, well, do anything really. I’d just lost my son, I’d just lost my career and probably I thought, I lost all faith in humanity. I went to Pakistan. I handed my keys to my dad and was like you deal with everything, I’m going. But one thing I was pretty determined to do at some point was speak about it but it was never meant to be when I actually ended up speaking about it. So, we come to 2020 and Black Lives Matter, I saw an interview that the Director of Cricket had done with the Yorkshire Post talking about how he had never experienced… seen racism off the back of Black Lives Matter and Michael Carberry speaking out, he’d never seen racism in the dressing rooms, never been part of it and all this and I read that and that hurt and then I saw Yorkshire put some diversity logos on their shirt and that really irritated me. But I was in no fit position still to be taking on who I know to be a massive institution and I knew I wasn’t… it wasn’t going to be easy for me and one thing I’ve been very clear from the offset is what I don’t claim to be perfect, I made some horrible mistakes and I regret them but that doesn’t mean that I should have been subjected to racist abuse. So, I had an in… I had just opened a recently new business and I had an interview around that and I got asked a question whether I’d faced any prejudice and I got emotional, I’m a very emotional person, and my emotions took over and I said everything. But even at that stage, the journalist in the Wisden article, it was like three-quarters of the way down, it mentioned it and it went into and it didn’t really, I didn’t really go into full detail but it was Yorkshire’s response at that point, they basically palmed it off like, like it didn’t matter and it reminded me of when I went and spoke to them in the room and the arrogance and the ego of just thinking that they were above everything and it wasn’t something that they needed to respond to. Again, that sort of built a few more emotions of irritation. I did a podcast with a journalist, Cricket Badger podcast, and that was really, well, one the bloke had worked at Yorkshire so he knew some of the things but I spoke a little bit more and Yorkshire’s response was well, he’s not mentioned Yorkshire so must be talking about someone else. I mean, I played for Derbyshire for one month but apart from that, I played at Yorkshire. Again, but it was really James Butler, the Cricket Badger podcast, he, he was like look I can’t take this any further, I’m going to get in touch with George Dobell, who was a journalist at Cricinfo at the time and George got in touch with me but that day, the Inclusivity and Diversity board member got in touch with me and I just said to him, look are you getting in touch with me on a personal capacity or as an… part of the organisation because the last thing I want is, you, I speak to you, I have one conversation and you go to the press that you’ve been supporting me, half an hour later my conversation with George, he gets a message from the club saying that Inclusivity and Diversity board member had been supporting me throughout. Yeah, again pretty frustrating so, then I did this interview with George and it was when George did the piece that it started to… this was September 2020, this was when Yorkshire knew that they needed to do more. And then they go on and announce an independent investigation which we’re going to talk more about.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
So it’s about one month after you spoke out, so i.e., you told the media about what had happened, that Yorkshire Cricket Club instructed an external law firm to conduct an investigation. So, I’m curious about what you thought of… so, A what you thought about the timing? And B what you thought about the actual investigation? What did they do well? What could they have done better?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
We can talk about what they do well and that conversation ends quickly but I’d say, I mean they got kicking and screaming into the… into doing anything. Like I said, George Dobell’s a very senior journalist and that hit the waves and then I did a few interviews so, they had no other option but to do something and I think what they thought and what generally… it’s difficult in these circumstances because you start getting gas lighted and it all gets put back on you so, I think they thought well we’ll announce this independent investigation which the chairman at the time, he actually had been associated with that firm in his training days so straight away it wasn’t a very independent in my eyes. Again, they created this panel which had two people on it who I’d gone to for help in the first place so, fighting all of that but initially I think what they thought is, look he’s going to come, he’s going to say a lot, he’s going to be a lot of… he’s a bitter ex-employee, there’s going to be no substance to anything and they can sort of use an independent investigation to… because they announced that it would be over in three months. When I met them, we had an eight hour interview and I think straight… their attitude before the interview and after, they knew they were in some trouble now, they couldn’t do what they were actually coming in to do, which is sad but it’s the reality of the world we live in, these so-called independent investigations we’re seeing recently, aren’t really very independent. So, as soon as I had my interview, I felt like everything, their language, the way they treated me, all became about how can we now, it felt like at times they wanted me to just pull out of the investigation but I was pretty determined to make sure I gave all the information and then let them see what they did. It was supposed to end in December, we got to February, we got to March, April, May, June and then I think it was… they announced, they came to the conclusion, or Yorkshire came to a conclusion and announced that I had been the subject of inappropriate behaviour. To say that irritated me, would be an understatement. To see that they had tried and attempted to put racism as inappropriate behaviour was hurtful and at this point I think everyone was starting to look at this from an outside and going what’s going on here. And then they decided they went from that to picking the morning of the Old Trafford Test Match when the Test Match was called off, which is quite big news, they announced there was no doubt that I was the victim of racial harassment and bullying. So you think alright, starting to learn but they didn’t send me the report and analysis and it was such a complicated and messed up process that there was the law firms did the investigation then they gave their findings to the panel, the panel then decided their part of it, then gave their interpretation of it to Yorkshire, then Yorkshire’s lawyers – very independent – Yorkshire’s lawyers decided what everyone else would see and then put their spin on it and put it out to the public in this way, morning of the Test Match. So they went from inappropriate behaviour to no question and then a few weeks later that none of their staff was… had done anything wrong and there was going to be no disciplinary to them.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
Would you say that’s why DCMS became involved? Because of that whole sort of scenario?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
Well, it started bubbling. So, from the inappropriate, I think Julian Knight had given a quote at some point just before that and then like I said, it had, people were starting to look and see what’s happening because it was gathering bigger and bigger, more media was starting to get interested but it was actually, so the report which I, I got sent not a full version of it, a sort redacted version of the report, so I didn’t even, so my allegations I didn’t even know what, how they’d come to some of the findings they’d come to but the report ended up being leaked and found its way into the press and Monday, I think it was the 1st of October and George Dobell wrote an article from the report that the fact the panel and investigation came to the finding that the P-word was used as banter.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
Should we just pause there for a second. Just says banter, right?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
The P-word was used as banter and they said that I had used the word Zimbo, which I don’t deny using and if I was at the club, I should be disciplined for that yet a week earlier, they decided that the P-word was used as banter and that none of their employees were involved.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
So during the oral evidence, DCMS said it’s all very good talking about initiatives and EDIs and banding words around but the point of the matter is 85% - this to you and I is quite common, right – 85% of kids at Bamford Park nets are of South Asian backgrounds yet we have had four British born Asians representing Yorkshire in the last decade – four. So, my next question is two parts. First, is this the turning point? Is THIS the turning point? And how do we create, how do we create change in cricket?
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
Short-term, accountability is very important so through this a clear message needs to be sent out that it is actually zero tolerance and it’s not just a word that’s put on the document. Frankly, I’m quite… since November, do I think things have changed enough? No. I think I feel like action plans and these PDFs and PowerPoint presentations are still again the direction the game seems to want to go down. There needs to be, for me, clear reporting mechanisms so if one thing, tangible thing that’s going to be learned from this situation is, how many people I had to go to and continue to go to, to be heard, that shouldn’t be the case, people should feel like there’s a clear avenue they can go down if they want to speak up. Secondly, I think an education but again education is just thrown out. What does it actually mean? I think I’ve been, like I said, I’ve been lucky enough to be part of some organisations that work in this space and I was part of Anne Frank Youth Conference and the way they educated young kids around discrimination, all discrimination, and what affects it has, I think cricket needs to look at words for that into the corporate world or… because I feel like cricket is a long way behind. And the third thing apart, is opportunities. I think cricket, like society, I think we need to actively go out and tell people that there is opportunities there for them. So I think a combination of that hopefully would be in sort of four, five years’ time, we can all look back and go you know what, we all played a tiny little part in the game that I love, cricket changing and in effect hopefully, society changing. It was actually quite scary how much of this was acted in the public domain. Imran Khan in ’99. The ECB did a report in 2001. The Fletcher Report that the ECB had themselves commissioned it but you know what, I’m very determined, I’m very determined for a theory of one, I’ve put myself and my family through a lot of pain and if nothing comes off that, I’ll be, I will have failed, that’s the way I see it and I’ve been handed a responsibility and a platform and if people see me as a voice for them and as difficult as it continues to be for me, I’m pretty determined to make sure that I fulfil that responsibility so, a very simple message for the game, the ECB, Yorkshire, Azeem Rafiq’s going nowhere until this changes so, in terms of it actually changing, I’m very determined that this will change this time around.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
There’s no way you can fail in this. The very fact that you here, the very fact that you are changing narratives, the very fact that the ECB and Yorkshire Cricket Club are doing things is success in itself. Obviously, there’s varying degrees of success. Thank you Azeem so much for coming in and thank you for sharing your story.
Azeem Rafiq, Ex Professional Cricketer and Speaker
Well, I mean, thanks for having me and just if I can leave with a well thank you for everyone for being here but I just, it’s all our responsibility, it really is, it’s not a person of colour or bi-person or anything, it literally is humanity. Yeah, just be allies, don’t be bystanders and yeah, hopefully like I said, we can all look back in five years’ time and say we played a tiny little part in the dial changing in this country.
Samir Manek, Associate, Mishcon de Reya
Thank you very much.
The Mishcon Academy Digital Sessions.
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