Yorkshire racism process ‘badly handled’ – Pyrah

Former bowling coach Richard Pyrah says the process relating to allegations of historical racism at Yorkshire has not been “open, fair or transparent”.

They were charged with bringing the game into disrepute after allegations made by former player Azeem Rafiq.

Pyrah said the process has been “badly handled” and the allegations “not appropriately challenged”.

“Everyone at Yorkshire was treated as culpable without the allegations being properly investigated,” said Pyrah, who also had a 12-year playing career at the county until 2015.

Only former England captain Michael Vaughan is set to appear at a public hearing in London in March after Pyrah, plus ex-Yorkshire players Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and John Blain withdrew earlier this month.

Former head coach Andrew Gale said in June he would not take part, while ex-England batter Gary Ballance admitted liability in response to his charge and will not participate.

Gale and Pyrah were among 16 individuals sacked by Yorkshire in December 2021 in the fallout of the racism scandal, but later won an unfair dismissal claim and agreed compensation.

Rafiq first made claims of racism at Yorkshire in August 2020 and later called English cricket “institutionally racist”.

He claims Pyrah dismissed his complaints of bullying and racism by other players.

Pyrah said the allegations have been “taken at face value” by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and outgoing Yorkshire chair Lord Patel, who he said he has not met before or after his sacking.

A spokesman for Yorkshire declined to comment, but told the BBC that Lord Patel had met Pyrah on 8 and 12 November 2021.

In his statement, Pyrah said: “When Azeem Rafiq initially made his allegations not one was made against me personally.

“During the ECB investigations I was never accused of, or asked about any specific racism point against me.

“Then I found I had been charged by the ECB on racism points I had never heard of, or questioned on, before.”

An ECB spokesperson said: “Every individual who has been charged in relation to this matter was written to by the ECB with details of allegations against them and given the opportunity to respond to them, which they did.

“This was months ahead of any charges being laid in June 2022.

“Any individual respondent who requested the opportunity to speak with the ECB investigating team was also spoken to well in advance of the charges being laid.”

When announcing he would stand down as chair earlier this year, Lord Patel maintained that dismissing those staff was “absolutely the right thing to do”.

He added: “By instinct, I always want to take people with me on the journey. But some people wouldn’t accept the extent of the problem or the need to change. We had to move on without them.

“It wasn’t just about Azeem, either. I spoke to hundreds of people who had suffered in a similar way. But they won’t come forward as they have seen what happened to Azeem.

“And it wasn’t all institutional racism. There was some very deliberate, very conscious racism.”

The ECB Cricket Disciplinary Commission will hear the charges in the individuals’ absence from 1-9 March.