‘They don’t get it’: Azeem Rafiq accuses counties of dragging feet on diversity

Azeem Rafiq has accused senior county leaders of dragging their feet instead of opening their arms in cricket’s push for diversity, saying he has been angered and frustrated by the continuing “resistance to anything that goes away from the status quo”, and that “it is becoming abundantly clear that the county system doesn’t want to welcome everyone”.

Rafiq’s stinging evidence to parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport select committee last November, describing his experiences of discrimination, was followed soon after by publication of the ECB’s equity, diversity and inclusion plan. But the 31-year-old does not believe there has been sufficient action in the months since, and the Guardian revealed last week that county chairs are now seeking to exert more power over the game, including a return to having two ring-fenced seats on the ECB board.

“Since DCMS a lot has happened, but from some of the stuff I’ve heard it’s becoming clear that the counties don’t actually see it, they don’t get it. Not all of them,” Rafiq said. “Since I spoke I don’t feel enough has changed. I don’t feel there’s enough of an energy to make changes. I think there’s some good people trying but as a whole in the county game there’s still a lot of resistance to anything that goes away from the status quo.”

It was the Middlesex chair Michael O’Farrell, forced to apologise in January after telling the DCMS committee that British South Asians chose education over sport and that people in the “Afro-Caribbean community” preferred football and rugby to cricket, who wrote to the ECB on behalf of county chairs to suggest they be given greater power in a reorganised game.

“The fact you’ve got Michael O’Farrell leading it, after his comments, it’s