Former West Indies legend Michael Holding, who has been a front runner in the fight against racism in the cricket world over the last few years, recently came hard on the England Cricket Board (ECB) over their handling of the Yorkshire racism incident.
The racism scandal, that has rocked England cricket, started after the former Yorkshire and England captain Michael Vaughan was accused of racial discrimination by his former club teammate Azeem Rafiq. Reacting to the news, in his column for the Daily Telegraph, Vaughan acknowledged that he was accused of racism but denied the claims.
It must be mentioned that out of the 43 allegations, seven were upheld by an independent report, according to a report published in English daily The Independent. But the club decided not to take any action.
Meanwhile, to send a strong message and show their solidarity in the fight against racism, ECB chastised Yorkshire after the club concluded that no action was needed in the aftermath of the racism allegations.
In the fallout of the racism claims made by Rafiq, BBC dropped Vaughan from his radio show, while the club chairman Roger Hutton put down his papers and Yorkshire’s first-team coach Andrew Gale has been suspended by the club.
However, following his resignation as club chairman, Hutton has slammed ECB for not helping the club in their inquiry into Rafiq’s allegations.
Now, reacting to ECB’s decision to not interfere in the club’s disciplinary hearing, Holding has slammed the national cricket board of England, saying that they have “failed Yorkshire and they failed cricket.”
“The ECB failed Yorkshire and they failed cricket. They are supposed to be the organisation that runs cricket in England. If you are the supreme court, for instance, and one of the lower courts has a problem and comes to you asking for help and you’ve said that’s not your business, that doesn’t work,” Holding was quoted as saying by The Sun.
