Just a day after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) banned Yorkshire county from hosting major matches due to its poor handling of the racism allegations levied by Azeem Rafiq, Roger Hutton has resigned as Yorkshire chairman with immediate effect.
Notably, he joined the club in April last year, way after Azeem had left the club raising the issue of racism in the club, but Hutton has apologised to the leg spinner for not carrying out strong investigations into “serious allegations of racism” and making changes at the county.
"Azeem left the club in August 2018, 18 months before I joined. I have never met Azeem. I know, however, that when someone makes claims as serious as his, they need to be investigated and changes need to be made. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to Azeem. The club should have recognised at the time the serious allegations of racism,” he said to ESPNcricinfo.
As things stand now, the ECB has stepped into the racism row and reprimanded the Yorkshire club for not acting swiftly and botching up the response to Azeem’s allegations of racism. However, Hutton expressed his frustrations and said that the board, too, has to take a fair share of the blame after not providing him with enough assistance when he sought help to look into a “matter of great importance”.
"I want to be clear that when I was made aware of Azeem Rafiq's allegations, I immediately reached out to the ECB to ask for their help and intervention to support a robust inquiry," Hutton said. "I was saddened when they declined to help as I felt it was a matter of great importance for the game as a whole. It is a matter of record that I have continually expressed my frustration at the ECB's reluctance to act."