Yorkshire CCC racism crisis: Live updates as Tom Harrison gives evidence to MPs after Azeem Rafiq's testimony

The hearing has now ended. Thank you for joining us for this live blog and follow The Yorkshire Post for more updates on this story throughout the day.

Committee chair Julian Knight said evidence has been given by Mr Hutton that the involvement of the Graves Family trustees, who are owed £15m by Yorkshire and are linked to former ECB and Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves, were a roadblock to reform at Yorkshire CCC.

Mr Knight said the situation appeared “desperately unhealthy for the game”.

Mr Harrison said the issue will be examined as part of a governance review of Yorkshire and accepted Mr Knight’s assertion that it could be a “major problem”.

Asked whether he agrees with Mr Hutton’s assessment that Yorkshire CCC is institutionally racists, Tom Harrison said: “I think the handling of the report issues indicates issues around institutional racism.”

He won’t be drawn further on whether or not he considers the club to be institutionally racist, instead repeating his original answer.

Tom Harrison said he had not been aware of the use of the word ‘Kevin’ as an apparently derogatory term by senior cricketers until he read the Yorkshire report, and added: “It will now form part of the ECB investigation.”

A powerful summary here of Azeem Rafiq’s evidence.

The ECB said it could not intervene in any part of the regulatory process Yorkshire conducted, and Harrison said he did not personally raise as an issue with Yorkshire the fact that Hutton had been previously employed by the law firm leading the Rafiq investigation.

Botros said the reason the ECB had started an investigation into allegations of racism at Essex was because at that point, the county had not opened their own investigation. If they had, Botros said, the ECB would have waited for that process to be completed, as it had with Yorkshire.

Downing Street described Azeem Rafiq’s evidence to the committee as “concerning”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Boris Johnson had been in meetings and had not watched any of the testimony.

But the spokesman added: “The evidence given this morning is concerning. There is no place for racism in sport.

“There is no place for racism anywhere in society.”

Tom Harrison said: “The reason why Yorkshire were allowed to undergo this investigation is because – up to that point – it was fairly normal practice for first-class counties to run their own regulatory process.

“We have learned lessons through this process.”

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison appeared to refute Hutton’s suggestion that the county had asked the national governing body to handle Rafiq’s allegations and said Yorkshire “were very clear they wanted to run this investigation themselves”.

Meena Botros, director of legal and integrity at the ECB, said Yorkshire had only asked the ECB if it would like to put someone on the panel which would assess the investigation team’s findings.

The testimony from Roger Hutton and Lord Patel has now finished.

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and other officials from the governing body are now giving evidence.

Hutton said in his view the ECB could and should have led the investigation into Rafiq’s allegations, rather than leave it to Yorkshire.

“In my view the ECB did have the discretion to investigate,” he added.

“Any member of the ECB could have started that complaint, as they have just done with Essex at the moment. I think the investigation would have been far more satisfactory.”

Roger Hutton is asked whether Yorkshire CCC is institutionally racist.

“I think the question remains unanswered,” he said.

But when pressed, he added: “I fear it falls within that definition.”

Roger Hutton asked about why scope of report were changed to avoid investigation team from law firm looking into the wider allegation of institutional racism at Yorkshire CCC before handing their findings over to an independent panel.

He said it was not done with his knowledge and “the panel must have concluded it wanted to make the finding about whether the club was institutionally racist or not”.

He said he has “no answer” as to why the change happened.

Roger Hutton said he recognised there were “limitations” in only publishing a summary of the report, rather than the full report.

He said the “strong advice” from barristers was that it could not be published.

New chair Lord Kamlesh Patel had been in the audience watching the hearing but has been called forward by MPs and is now giving evidence.

He said: “You see a lot of denial, you see a lot of sadness.

“This is an organisation that’s been hammered left, right and centre, maybe for the right reasons.

“Changes are going to have to be met and it’s not going to be overnight, but we have got to move on it, really quickly and really hard.

“I’m prepared to take whatever decisions I need to take.”

Nick Lowles, CEO of HOPE not hate, the UK’s leading antifascism and antiracism campaign group, said: “Watching Azeem Rafiq talk about the racism he has experienced has been heartbreaking.

“When racism is not taken seriously, or dismissed as ‘good natured banter’, there are real consequences. People get hurt.

“But what is most troubling is that what Azeem Rafiq has experienced is not an isolated incident, in cricket or across sport more generally.

“Over the years, we have heard countless accounts of people being racially abused in sport, and despite many campaigns to tackle the problem head on, the same issues crop up time and time again. We must now stand together and say ‘enough is enough’.

“Azeem Rafiq’s bravery in speaking out against those who abused him needs to be a turning point – this is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with Azeem and run racism out of sport, once and for all”.

Former chair Roger Hutton is now giving evidence.

He said he had been blocked from removing chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon from the board because the Colin Graves Trust vetoed it.

Graves was Hutton’s predecessor as chair and served as ECB chair from 2015 to 2020.

Hutton said he wanted to remove them “as a consequence of the failure to understand the gravity of the situation (regarding Rafiq) and failing to apologise, and particularly for their failings and to move on the recommendations”.

He said it was “wrong” that a major creditor like the Trust should have the power to veto board decisions.

Read more here about the background to the Graves Trust, which is owed almost £15m by Yorkshire CCC: