Yorkshire CCC Racist Row

[Omegstrat6]

Hey up Mick, I thought this subject would interest you especially mate with your Yorkshire connections.
I know I/we all have got to be so much more careful now what we say and do of course. But this wider subject that we're covering here really frustrates and angers me as well if Im honest.

For example on the telly, remember in the mid 80s when uncle Albert said on an episode of Only Fools.. "P*aki shop won't let us have any credit!."
And Im convinced that absolutely nothing harmful was meant in a statement like that in those days, and Im sure nobody thought twice about it when it was said in the streets as well as on the telly. By the way, I don't know if that bit has been edited out now by the beeb.
And another example in the early 90s is when Rick Mayall said ".. thieving bas*ard gyppos!." on the show Bottom. That word has now been edited to 'yobbos' instead because some people must have taken offense.

But who made the complaints ehh in the first place, I bet it wasn't made by the people who it was supposed to be offending. And thats when these so called do-gooders get involved and they make the issues ten times worse by sticking their noses in.

Anyway, rant over!!.

I doubt that any offence was meant by the OFAH line (although it is probably viewed as "casual racism" today)whereas the Bottom line was probably meant to be offensive! That said, there is an issue where Gypsies/Romanies being lumped together with Travellers and -whilst you obviously cant tar them all with the same brush-the sad truth is that too many "travellers" do cause issues for others and that includes theft.

As for the last bit, I think there is a lot of truth in that with too many of the Woke generation taking it upon themselves to be offended on behalf of others and, like you, this gets my goat. I think one example of this is the Gay community. The vast majority that I have known over the years have been far from shrinking violets and tended to have very un-PC senses of humour (think Julian Clary-ish). They would certainly not take offence at some of the things that others get wound up about today and would happily engage in "banter". Even the quieter ones were not so overly sensitive. My pet theory is that a lot of this is generational with too many now having an exaggerated sense of entitlement which includes expecting the world to conform to their viewpoint alone. I get similarly annoyed by those in the PC brigade who want to "rebrand" Christmas as a "Winter holiday" or some such crap for fear of offending Muslims or whatever. FFS! Most Muslims would probably laugh their heads off at this, not least because the vast majority of them in this country probably take their religion far more seriously than most so -called Christians do. Thankfully this stupidity seems to be dying away as most people realize that its perfectly OK to call Christmas "Christmas" and celebrate it, just as its perfectly OK to also celebrate the religious holidays of other faiths such as Diwali, Ramadam, Chinese New Year or Hanukkah or whatever.

[Leicesterbaggie]

I totally agree with you Ogestrat regarding gypsies and travellers as there is a vast difference between the two. From my experience true gypsies, not just Romany, are respectful of people, the countryside and their surroundings in general. I have utmost respect for them. Travellers on the other hand, in general, not so.

[mickd1961]

Tough listening to Azim Raffiq give his evidence today.

What a vile creature that Gary Ballance is, on a personal note there’s always been something about Ballance I’ve not been able to take to when seeing him interviewed and he’s been quick to play the “mental health card” in the past when his form sucks.

To hear that he referred to all the black players as “Kevin” along with the coke head Alex Hales just repulses me.

Hales is a nasty piece of work, loves himself a bit too much and has never progressed mentally from being 15 years old.

Apparently Hales even called his dog Kevin because it was black! 😩

Vile, vile scum.

I suffered 4 years of bullying at junior school, most of it mental rather than physical and due to my Yorkshire accent abs the fact I was a fat kid, think Doughnut out of TV’s Double Deckers to give yourself the picture!

The more the b a s t a r d s got to my head the more I ate......the mental stuff can wear you down to less than nothing.

Ballance and Hales should be sacked and every other team and franchise then blackball them.

As a fellow Yorkshireman I’m embarrassed and disgusted at the way my club has treated this bloke, the lack of empathy towards his dead baby is as low as it gets.

Azim needs to be invited back to the club to be put in charge of how things are run from now on as community relations director.

Ballance and Hales should be given four year bans from cricket and that clever a r s e Michael Vaughan needs to be investigated.

“Kevin” FFS.......no surprise coming from a South African “Englishman” and a f u c k I n g halfwit mate like Hales.

[Leicesterbaggie]

Watched quite a bit of the enquiry this morning on Sky. Yorkshire, as a club, come out of it extremely badly, as do certain individuals. I still feel that there's more to come. It wasn't a good view and a bad day for cricket in general.

[BaggieSingh]

Again I haven’t seen much of this, but for years people have had to put up with **** and expected to take it

I have people in my family who got spat at and beaten up just for daring to be here and in public
And they just got on with it and still were positive and tried to be good citizens and help in the community

I’m sure we all have had something similar bullying wise in our lives but when it’s for your race you don’t get any peace and it’s nothing you can change, and it is a way of being kept down

Unless you have had it for a prolonged period it’s very difficult to explain, and I think most people my age have had this for a prolonged period at school
Sports seems to be a breeding ground for it unfortunately

[Yarmbaggie]

Look I am not defending Yorkshire CCC or cricket generally but I do think Azeem Rafiq needs to be careful to stop throwing around so many accusations outside of racist comments.

For those who dont follow Yorkshire CCC closely he does have a bit of a checkered history as a cricketer. Despite making his debut in 2008 he did only play 39 first class matches for the county. He did captain England u19s but when he was dropped, on disciplinary grounds, he had a right go at the then coach John Abraham’s, South African born cricketer of colour, on twitter.

The outburst was such that he was banned from ALL cricket for one month.

In 2014 he was released by YCCC as he wasn’t fulfilling his potential. However, no other county came in for him and he went back to play League cricket. His comments that he lost a cricketing career due to racism may be true, but having seen him play let’s say he wasn’t the best spinner the county had that decade.

He was offered a way back into the game by YCCC in 2016 and to be fair to him, although he still wasn’t good enough for the first class game, he became a key element of the T20 side.

Just thought this background might bring a bit of additional information to what has been a very bad period for both cricket and YCCC.

Having said all of it I agree with BaggieSingh in that I know sport and indeed any environment where men of a certain age and testosterone level meet are rife with racists comments and it needs to stop NOW.

[Leicesterbaggie]

That's very interesting to know Yarm, I did not know any of this. As I said in a previous thread, I wouldn't make a comment until all the facts were fully known. Like you, I do believe that there was racism at Yorkshire CCC but nothing has been mentioned in the enquiry regarding Rafiq being banned etc. I suppose there are two sides to every story. It will be interesting to see if any of this comes to light!

[Leicesterbaggie]

I have investigated this matter further and according to the London Evening Standard he was banned for a month from all forms of cricket and fined £500 for a foul mouthed tirade against John Abrahams, the black South African coach, after being dropped from the England Under 19 side for ignoring curfew rules during matches. He admitted guilt to both charges.

As I have stated before, I do believe that Yorkshire CCC are institutially racist, but how racist are the England and Wales Cricket Board? After all, they appointed him captain of the England Under 19 side ahead of white English players. As I say, two sides to very story!

[mickd1961]

As I said I think Ballance and Hales are a disgrace but I do think there’s 15 years of old scores being settled here by Rafiq.

This reminds me of the Barry Bennell abuse story in football.

The ex Crewe player who brought it to light had himself just been sacked from the police after a s e x u a l misconduct charge was found against him due to him having an affair with a rape victim he’d been dealing with.

Sometimes there’s other things at play, it raises your media profile when you become the flag bearer for these sorts of things.

What happened to Rafiq and the footballers was wrong though.

[BaggieSingh]

Very true in the current environment it’s pretty easy to get some favourable press and sympathy

But I’m also pretty sure that the stuff he said went on did go on, in years gone by it wasn’t even noticed

For example when I was at school I was the only non white kid in top sets for everything and there were some dumb ass kids in there and some pretty smart Asian and black kids left behind
I remember being picked on by the teachers let alone the kids, I was treated much harsher and comments like you lot were banded around and I was always made to feel different although all you want to do at high school is fit in

And I’m sure the kids and teachers wouldn’t have realised quite how they were making me feel, some did say it with spite and want to hurt me, but most didn’t and it was just what happened to anyone different, brown, fat, ginger, handicapped etc

Luckily I’m pretty strong and it didn’t impact me too much as I had lots of family and friends around me after school and I was constantly busy running errands or tutoring younger kids etc etc so did t have too much time to think about it
My dad wouldn’t have done anything about it, he would have said get on with it and stop being a wimp
Times change if my daughter told me this sort of stuff happened I’d be right up the school sorting it out

But it did teach me to just get on with my sh I t and not allow others to pull me down, but I guess one impact was that I didn’t engage in too many sports at school, and only played footie and cricket outside of school