"You lot sit over there, near the toilets." Former England cricketer Azeem Rafiq told British lawmakers how he lost his career to racism.
TW: Distressing comments and racial slurs.
TW: Distressing comments and racial slurs.
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00:00Steve, so I, once I left the club, Chideshwar Bajara joined the club and Jack Brooks I think
00:09started it where he didn't feel the need to call him by his first name. There is an interview
00:14with Chideshwar where he said I'd prefer them not to.
00:17We had a really difficult pregnancy and through that time the treatment that I received from
00:26some of the club officials were inhuman, they weren't really bothered about the fact
00:35that I was at training one day and I get a phone call. So there's no heartbeat.
00:56Pretty early on, me and other people from an Asian background,
01:25there was comments such as you lot sit over there near the toilets, elephant washers,
01:31the word paki was used constantly and there just seems to be an acceptance in the institution from
01:39the leaders and no one, no one ever stamped it out. You know he's a paki or he's not a sheikh,
01:46he's got no oil and this happened in front of teammates, it happened in front of coaching
01:52staff. We were on a bus trip in London to Surrey game and we went past a couple of men with beard
01:58and it was like oh is that your dad if we go past a corner shop or does your uncle own this?
02:03Steve, so once I left the club, Chileshwar Bajara joined the club and Jack Brooks I think started
02:29it where he didn't feel the need to call him by his first name. There is an interview with Chileshwar
02:35where he said I'd prefer them not to but not only did Jack, the coaches, everyone else, the media,
02:43Yorkshire Post, the Yorkshire website, the Yorkshire Twitter page, everyone called him that,
02:51commentators around the world, some high-profile people. It just shows again back to what the
02:58institutional feelings and what that environment showed people and how they could behave.
03:20Kevin was something Gary used to describe everyone of colour in a very derogatory manner,
03:27whether that be publicly, whether that be within the dressing room, whether that be opposition.
03:32This is an open secret within the England dressing room. Anyone that's come across Gary
03:38would know that that's the phrase he used to describe people of colour. It was used in a
03:42derogatory manner all the time. Everyone's known it for a very long time. I think it's been an
03:56open secret. It's been, as I've seen over the last 15 months, if you speak out your life's
04:04going to be made hell and there's no doubt my life. I sat in front of national TV and talked
04:10about the dark places this whole episode got me into and what's happened since then. Denial,
04:18briefings, cover-ups, smearing, high-profile media, media people messaging other members
04:26of the media who have supported me saying stuff like, well, the clubhouse is the life
04:33blood of a club and Asian players don't go in there.
04:37Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone.
04:48I was encouraged to sign a confidentiality form and take a sum of money, which I refused,
04:54which at that time would have been a lot of money for me. I knew my wife was struggling.
04:59I knew I was struggling. There was no way mentally I could have even considered putting
05:05myself through this trauma. I actually left the country. I went to Pakistan. I never wanted to
05:12come back. I know that the pain that I went through for that few months, no one could ever,
05:20ever put me through that pain again.