Yorkshire’s Cricket Test

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Kamran Abbasi considers the roots of Yorkshire County Cricket Club's problems with racism.

In the wake of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal, cricket writer and medic Kamran Abbasi considers the roots of Yorkshire County Cricket Club's problems with racism.

As the scandal surrounding the racist dressing room environment exposed by Azeem Rafiq continues, cricket writer and senior medic Kamran Abbasi considers the roots of Yorkshire County Cricket Club's problems with racism.

Kamran grew up playing cricket in Rotherham, and has first-hand experience of racism in Yorkshire cricket. He was a very good club player but, like many other Asian players, was side-lined by the club system. “We were cricketers of the shadows,” he says.

In this programme, he goes back to Yorkshire to better understand why the sport has failed to diversify at the elite level. How far is the club to blame? Or the sport? How far is cricket just playing out the prejudices that still run deep in British society?

Kamran traces the key moments in Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s history where opportunities to reform have been lost and explores the roots of this unwillingness to change.

He speaks to British Asian players who have felt alienated by the game they love, going back to the 1980s. Until 1992, the “born in Yorkshire rule” excluded many gifted players from migrant backgrounds. And it led to a segregated system where Black and Asian cricketers were ghettoised in their own leagues.   

"Growing up in Yorkshire in the 1970s and 1980s was a unique cricketing experience for a migrant. You wouldn't think about playing for a non-Asian team, and the other teams wouldn't try to recruit you however good you were," says Kamran.

When Indian test legend Sachin Tendulkar joined Yorkshire as its first overseas player in 1992, many saw it as a huge moment and an opportunity to open up the club to South Asian players - but, almost 30 years on, many continue to feel unwelcome.

According to an ECB report, 30% of recreational cricket players across England and Wales have South Asian backgrounds, yet just 4% of professional cricketers are British Asian. Yorkshire Cricket Club has only had four non-white Yorkshire-born players in its history.

Why, when cricket could have helped ethnic minority communities integrate in the UK, has it failed to do so?

Kamran is executive editor of the British Medical Journal and was the first British Asian columnist for Wisden cricket monthly. He is the author of Englistan: An Immigrant's Journey on the Turbulent Winds of Pakistan Cricket.

Statistics provided by Paul Dyson, The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.

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