Does cricket have a racism problem?

If like me, you are a white middle-class octogenarian, it is easy to be quite relaxed about racism, even to think, sometimes anyway, that its impact may be exaggerated, and that some people may adopt a victim status as a way of accounting for their own lack of success.

So when the former Yorkshire off-spinner, Azeem Rafiq, first brought accusations of racism and discrimination against teammates in the dressing room and officials of the County Club, I found myself wondering if this was a reflection of a career that began with great promise which was never quite fulfilled.

Of course, it was just as possible that his comparative failure resulted from the racism he felt himself suffering and the consequent unhappiness. The story was distressing. Though I have never lived in Yorkshire and don’t know the county well, I have, as a cricket fan, supported Yorkshire since I was a boy, and Yorkshire players were my heroes from Len Hutton, Johnny Wardle, Brian Close and Fred Trueman in my schooldays.

It was sad to realise, as one did before long, that the Yorkshire dressing-room was not always a happy place, but one where too often big ego clashed with big ego. Likewise, the County Committee was slow to move with the times, being usually obstinately set in its ways, stiff-necked and self-righteous. It was a President of the Scottish Rugby Union, not of Yorkshire, who once said that “when any innovation is proposed we immediately say ‘No’, then we think about it and say ’No’ again”, but it might well have been a Yorkshire chairman.

The Tykes – is this an offensive term now? – like to see themselves as hard no-nonsense folk with little time for sentiment or regard for other folks’ feelings.

Well, they are in trouble now. The club committee’s report after investigating Rafiq’s allegations was published with several passages redacted – perhaps on legal advice – and has been deemed unsatisfactory. The Chairman is to be summoned before a Commons Committee and doubtless given a dressing-down.

Yorkshire’s treatment of the affair has been condemned by the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary. Nobody has been censured or disciplined by the club and alarmed sponsors, even Yorkshire Tea and Tetley’s beer have been quick to sever their connection. Nobody wants to drink a cuppa or down a pint with people accused of racism.

Meanwhile, Gary Ballance, former England Test batsman and Yorkshire captain has issued a statement, also, one assumes, scrutinized by lawyers. Ballance, not himself a Yorkshireman, but born and brought up in Zimbabwe before finishing his schooling at Harrow, contritely confesses to having used what he now recognizes as “inappropriate language” – i.e. calling Rafiq a “P**i”.

At the same time, he insists that he and Rafiq were “best mates” and offers some evidence in support. Rafiq invited him to his wedding in Pakistan (though he was unable to be there) and, when Rafiq was playing and coaching in Zimbabwe, he stayed with Ballance’s family and became a close friend of his brother. If there has been, as it seems, a fall-out since it’s rather sad, and it may be that both are at fault. But Ballance seems more puzzled and sad than angry.

Meanwhile, Mihir Bose, writing in The Guardian, has widened the argument. It’s not just Yorkshire but English cricket, in general, that is in the dock. There are, Bose says, correctly, fewer players of colour in English county cricket than there were thirty years ago. Football is now more representative of England’s multi-racial society than cricket.

This is true. Football, not cricket, is now England’s national game, whether you like this or not, and so it is also the case that football offers far more opportunities today than cricket – for white English boys and black or Asian ones alike. Even so, four members of the England team in the current World T20 championship come from minority cultures: Moeen Al, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan and Tybalt Mills. Not bad, surely.

The truth is that badinage between people who regard themselves as equals can take the form of words which in other circumstances would be resented. Few much resent being called a bloody fool or a half-wit by friends. It’s a different matter when the one on the receiving end thinks and fears that the speaker regards him as an inferior being belonging to a lesser breed.

Casual racist expressions may be no more than unthinking bad manners, but they can still hurt.