LONDON: It is two years since I first met Azeem Rafiq in Dubai to discuss the launch of his book, “It’s not banter, it’s racism.” A video of our wide-ranging discussion was published by Arab News, along with a summary of the interview.
At that time, a firm date for the publication of the book had not been fixed. This was partly because the implications of Rafiq’s revelations of racism in English cricket were subject to long distillation by cricket’s establishment, necessitating frequent updates as new perspectives emerged.
Eventually, the book was released at the Hay Book festival in May 2024. It has generated polarized views. A paperback version of the book was released in mid-2025 that included a short additional chapter, which provided updates on what may now be regarded as a saga. These related to the life of Azeem and his family in Dubai, ongoing advisory and media work and his sadness at the reversion of Yorkshire County Cricket Club to what he views as its intrinsic culture. This is one which denies that it is racist and blames those who accused it of such as responsible for its most recent travails.
My first question to Azeem was to expand on how this has affected him. In the immediate aftermath of his revelations in 2022, he received many apologies, heard many statements by those in charge of cricket about acceptance of the need for change and, consequently, had reason to be optimistic that shifts in attitudes to racism in the sport would occur. Instead, he has watched people who had been charged and sanctioned for racist attitudes being invited to return to coaching and administrative positions in cricket, notably at Yorkshire.
He has also been concerned at a perceived change in stance within the England and Wales Cricket Board. In June 2023, after the chairman of YCCC had suggested that incidents of racism at the county were “banter,” the ECB responded by saying that “We must never again hear the accounts like Azeem Rafiq’s, where racist slurs are used as part of normalized language.”
More recently, well-informed individuals have suggested to Rafiq that those at the top of the English game “want his blood.” This may sound extreme, but Rafiq points to what appeared to be orchestrated social media attacks against him at the time when his father was severely ill in hospital with a condition from which he did not recover. This hit Azeem very hard and presaged a period of vulnerability. Normal responses to bereavement of sympathy and time and space to heal were not forthcoming.
It is not easy to pinpoint a moment or incident when the campaign against Rafiq gathered strength. Perhaps the writing was on the wall once Colin Graves returned as chair of YCCC in February 2024. He was chair of YCCC and then ECB during the years when Rafiq played for Yorkshire. Graves has consistently failed to accept that racism in cricket in Yorkshire is normalized. Publication of the book provided Azeem with a high profile for a time and a sense of optimism for change. However, behind the scenes, it seems that the process to isolate and ostracize him was gaining momentum.
This is difficult to prove, of course, as there is no written evidence; surreptitious conversations after meetings, perhaps, or during cricket matches. Rafiq has experienced covert attempts to belittle him, threaten him, silence him. People have tipped him off about the intentions of others, but they cannot or will not reveal themselves. He talked about all of these aspects during our interview. Good friends and supporters of his cause have distanced themselves or have lost contact, in some cases to save their jobs. He has been branded a troublemaker, a controversial character. Yet, he cannot prove the covert operations against him and most of those who are against him do not reveal their true colors.
There is an exception to this which Azeem, ironically, respects. He said that with Graves, the YCCC committee and the wider culture that they represent, he does at least know what they stand for and that they are a recognizable, tangible, enemy. At higher levels in the English game, he can only suspect how they view him, and that is unfavorably. My point to him was that there are a number of funded initiatives to provide facilities and opportunities for non-white young people to progress at cricket. Rafiq’s view is that these are surface-level initiatives, supported by high-quality public relations campaigns that do not reach the heart of the problem.
He is quick to recognize that this a wider issue than cricket. Since his original revelations in 2020, the mood in the UK has hardened significantly toward immigrants and their place in British society. Racial tensions have been inflamed in a fragmenting social and political environment. In this context, Azeem was delighted to discuss the fact that the 2025 county champions in England and Wales, Nottinghamshire, were captained by a Muslim, Haseeb Hameed. He is the first of his faith to be captain of a team, which won the title outright. Hameed moved to Nottinghamshire from Lancashire, after a highly promising start to his career faltered, along with a nascent England career. It does beg the question how a county that borders Yorkshire can be so different in its culture and its attitude.
In the days following our interview, news broke that a former England rugby union international, Luther Burrell, claimed that his career in the sport was effectively ended after he made public his experiences of the racism to which he had been subjected. He revealed that one of his teammates had referred to him as a “slave” and told him to “apply sunscreen to his wrists and ankles as that’s where your shackles were.” In 2023, an investigation found that, “on the balance of probability”, his claims were most likely true. After that, Burrell was unable to find a contract at a professional club.
It is another example of the perils of whistleblowing, with which Rafiq has become bitterly acquainted over the past five years. He speaks of a process in which, first, he was attacked openly in the media. This was followed by covert attempts to discredit him that cannot be repelled because no one is prepared to listen and publish any counter arguments, fearful of the consequences of going public. This leads to media silence and isolation of the individual, pushed away from the game he once loved by those who administer it.
If the process was designed to teach him a lesson, even to break him, it has been effective. Yet, Rafiq fights on. His biggest disappointments are, first, that he could have been more damaging with his revelations, but chose not to do so out of a love for the game and a belief that it would take the opportunity to better itself. The second disappointment is with the performance of the ECB’s leaders, of whom he is he critical for not grasping that opportunity. Instead, in Rafiq’s view, a series of surface-level initiatives have been enacted that do not address the fundamental issue of institutional racism, which he raised five long years ago and for which he has been vilified.
