Azeem Rafiq criticises Middlesex chairman's comments on lack of diversity in cricket

The chairman of the Middlesex County Cricket Club has apologised after saying that the lack of diversity in cricket is due to Afro-Caribbean people preferring football and rugby and the South Asian community focusing more on education.

Coinciding with the appearance of four county cricket chairs in front of a select committee on Tuesday, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) updated its 12-point action plan to tackle racism and discrimination.

This added details of a review of «dressing room culture» and a standardised approach to whistleblowing.

However, one of the four chairs, Middlesex's Mike O'Farrell, had to subsequently issue an apology for the way he explained the game's lack of diversity. 

This repetition of old tropes led Azeem Rafiq — whose explosive whistleblowing testimony of the racism he experienced at Yorkshire began the whole process — to say this viewpoint «confirmed what an endemic problem the game has».

Yorkshire, Hampshire and Glamorgan were the other counties represented in front of a Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee as part of an ongoing investigation into cricketing governance.

O'Farrell said of youth players when reaching their later teens: «The football and rugby world becomes much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community.

»In terms of the South Asian community, we're finding that they do not want necessarily to commit the same time that is necessary to go the next step. They sometimes prefer to go into other educational fields and then cricket becomes secondary."

His comments came 14 months after Football Association chairman Greg Clarke resigned after suggesting before the same committee that south Asian people chose careers in IT over sport.

On Twitter, Rafiq said it was a