Essex charged by ECB over historical racism allegation

Essex have received two disciplinary charges from the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for a historical allegation of racist language being used at a board meeting in 2017, the county team said on Thursday.

Essex chairman John Faragher had resigned from his role in November after the allegation he used racist language, although he has strongly denied the incident.

"These are not new allegations, but are the next formal part of the ECB process regarding issues that were raised by the ECB in October 2021," Essex said in a statement.

"The club takes this matter extremely seriously. We have co-operated fully with the ECB's investigations since they commenced last year and will continue to do so as the process moves to this next stage."

Faragher's decision to resign came a day after fellow county side Yorkshire's former chief executive Mark Arthur resigned in the fallout from the allegations of institutional racism made by their former player Azeem Rafiq.

Former Essex players had also come forward and described the racist abuse they suffered at the club.

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)