A tearful Azeem rafiq told MPs that some of the treatment that he received by both coaches and players in Yorkshire County Cricket Club was, "inhuman," and that following the death of his son, coaches did not appear to be,"bothered." The former first-class cricketer believed that he had been a victim of insitutional racism by the club, and that he had been unaware and unwilling to accept that his inital treatment was unacceptable- for anyone, let alone a professional athlete. A picture of embedded racism far beyond the odd inappropriate comment depicted Yorkshire's County Club. This raises important questions of how a professional institution, such as a County Cricket Club, could allow for such instances to happen, and the extent to which racism exists- not only within this club but also within the environment of county cricket in the country.

According to Rafiq, the reason that he chose to go back to Yorkshire, after being victim to such treatment, was due to a lack of choice, rather than actively going back to the club where he was victim to this treatment. He was faced with the highly unpleasant decision of either choosing to sacrifice his, "dream," or not going back to the club where he had experienced such discrimination. If this was the decision faced by Rafiq, we must ask ourselves whether this is the environment that we wish to exist within the cricketing dressing room and the county cricket system. This is particularly the case considering that Rafiq believes that this is an issue that affects all of county cricket and that it is not just Yorkshire that is responsible- the ECB must take responsibility to create an environment of county cricket where there is no discrimination.

Whilst Rafiq was brave to speak about his experiences at his county, not all cricketers who experience such treatment are willing to do so, and with this issue being one that exists on a scale that is larger than just one county, we must ask ourselves how we can prevent such events from happening. This may perhaps be an issue of a larger scale than even the county cricket system in the country and one that affects the society that we live in. It is therefore up to the members of soceity to act in a way that prevents such events from happening in our daily lives, so that we can live without discrimination. Hopefully, the ECB will take actions to prevent future events of discrimination and racism from taking place, following the words of Rafiq- in county cricket and at all levels of cricket within the country.