Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves told a select committee he had not phoned Azeem Rafiq to apologise for the racism he suffered at the club because he had “plenty of things going on”.
The 76-year-old apologised last month to “anyone who had experienced any form of racism at Yorkshire” during his first spell at the club from 2002 to 2015, at a time when his loan offer to rescue the club and return as chairman was recommended to members by the Yorkshire board.
Graves, whose return as chairman was officially ratified on February 9, was asked by Culture, Media and Sport committee member John Nicolson on Tuesday why he had not phoned former Yorkshire player Rafiq to personally apologise.
Graves did issue an apology to Rafiq during the session, but when asked by Nicolson why he had not called Rafiq, Graves said: “I didn’t feel that was appropriate at the time. I’ve apologised today to Mr Rafiq and anybody else who experienced any discrimination or racism.”
Pressed by Nicolson on why he had not felt it was appropriate, Graves said: “I just have plenty of things going on around not to pick up the phone to Mr Rafiq.”
Nicolson asked whether that meant he was “too busy” to call, to which Graves replied: “No, I did not say I was too busy.”
Graves would not rule out the possibility of any members of staff returning who had been at the club during the period where Rafiq faced discrimination.
“It has not been discussed by the board,” Graves said.
“We’ve got our first board meeting on Monday. I’m sure regarding the future, the structure, everything will be discussed, but at this point in time it has not been discussed.”
Graves said the letter was not on his behalf, but on behalf of the club. He said the letter was a simple request to be sent a copy of the book and was “soft” in tone.
“If the letter was as anodyne as you say, will you publish the letter?” Nicolson asked.
“Yeah, no problem,” Graves replied.
