Yorkshire have 'a long way to go' to prove they're not institutionally racist
A hearing is being held by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee tomorrow on Azeem Rafiq's case
A former Yorkshire academy player, who's spoken out about his experience with racism at the club, wants to see a stronger message come from the top down.
A hearing is being held by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee tomorrow on Azeem Rafiq's case.
Tabassum Bhatti from Bradford recently spoke out about his experience of racial abuse, as a Youth Academy player at the age of 14.
He said:
"My concern is this action from Yorkshire, all these developments are only happening because there has been financial repercussion
"I'd like to see a stronger message from the top, for Yorkshire to understand the gravity of the situation.
"Can have all these development programmes, but coming up and through the system, there needs dramatic change and you don't like to see people losing their jobs, but it needs a real shake up and I think now is the time for that to happen."
Tabassum hopes that in speaking out about his experiences, it will encourage others and give them the confidence to come forward, if they've suffered similar abuse.
He continued:
"This has been going on for a long, long time. It was happening when I was at the club 20 odd years ago, it was happening before I was there and it's still happening now.
"In my case I was always shy and reserved and timid to start with, so experiencing what I did, it put me more into my shell.
"It's pretty clear that incidents have taken place, and it's happened for a long, long time.
"It's just the feedback that we are getting now, and the amount of people coming forward now, it's self-evident.
"Things have been happening, it's why have they been happening and who was responsible and what needs to happen? I think that's the message we need to get across."