Image Credit- PA Photos
For the bigotry he experienced as a Yorkshire player,
Colin Graves has yet to express his regret to Azeem Rafiq in person.
After serving as Yorkshire chair from 2012 to 2015—during which the club was
fined £400,000 for neglecting to address the club’s systematic use of racist or
discriminatory language—Graves took on the post again last month. That came
after Rafiq made public his encounters with racism while playing there.
Graves made an appearance on Tuesday before the
Department of Culture, Media, and Sport select committee. Graves declined to
testify during the legislative proceedings that ensued after Rafiq’s complaints
in November 2021. There, he took use of the chance to officially apologise to
Rafiq; but, when asked whether he had called Rafiq to express his regrets,
Graves said he hadn’t.
“I haven’t apologised to him personally,
no,” Graves told the committee. “If I had the opportunity to talk to
him then fine, I would do because he should not have experienced what he
experienced.”
But Graves faced further grilling by John Nicolson MP, who questioned why he
had not reached out to Rafiq.
“Certainly from my point of view, I didn’t feel that was appropriate at
the time,” Graves said. “I’ve apologised today to Mr Rafiq and
anybody else who experienced any discrimination or racism. I just had plenty
things going on around not to pick up the phone to Mr Rafiq.”
Following confirmation that his return to the board
would be approved at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at Headingley on
February 2, Graves sent out a “personal and unreserved” apology to
all victims of racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club last month.
“I’ll apologise again today,” Graves told
the select committee. “Because anybody from a minority ethnic background
who experienced either discrimination or racism at Yorkshire, that should never
have happened. It never will be acceptable and it certainly won’t be going
forward. I apologise for anybody who went through any discrimination or racism,
it is not accepted.”
Graves also repeated his apology over an interview last year in which he
dismissed the accusations as “banter”.
“I did an interview in June, July 23 where I used the word ‘banter’. At
the time I didn’t realise the insensitivity of that word,” he said.
“And again, since then I’ve apologised for using that word and I apologise
again. I should not have used it. It was a bad judgement from my point of
view.”