Former sports minister calls for independent public inquiry into Yorkshire racism controversy

RICH EDWARDS - EXCLUSIVE: Caborn was Minister for Sport for the Labour government between 2000 and 2007 and was in his post when London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. His voice still carries significant weight

There are few prouder Yorkshiremen than Richard Caborn, a man who admits that there were times when his wife was pregnant that he had to have contingency plans in place to make a rapid return to the county to ensure any offspring was born within its borders.

“Back then, if they hadn’t been, they couldn’t have played for Yorkshire, could they,” he tells The Cricketer. 

Little wonder then, that the past week has hit him hard, as one of the great institutions in British sport has found itself embroiled in a controversy that appears to deepen with each passing day. 

“You’ve got to move above all this – you’ve got to draw a line under everything that has happened and you have to find a solution to it,” he says. “And the solution to it is a thorough review and a completely independent inquiry into institutional racism. 

“We need to bring about a fundamental change to make the club fit for purpose again.

^{Yorkshire have been accused of institutional racism}

“Then the sponsors will come back, international cricket will come back and you’ll restore the fortunes of the greatest county and cricket club in the world because that’s what it is and that’s what we’re playing for here.

“We need to get us back to where we should be. We’ve squandered it and we need to restore it.

“We were the last county, rightly or wrongly, to say that you’ve got to be born in Yorkshire to play for Yorkshire.

“I remember when my youngsters were being born, both of them, when we went out of Yorkshire and my wife was getting up to nine months, we would make sure we had a route back to Yorkshire – just in case one of them was going to open the batting for them.

 "Cricket has to accept it can’t mark its own homework anymore. It has to be carried out by someone who is truly independent"

“That’s how we saw it, that how I saw it. My dad played cricket, my grandad played cricket – cricket is in our bloody DNA. That’s an indication of how important cricket is to people in this county – and just illustrates how important it is to find a resolution to everything that has happened.”

Caborn was Minister for Sport for the Labour government between 2000 and 2007 and was in his post when London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games and England wrestled back the Ashes from Australian hands in 2005. 

His voice still carries significant weight. The current Tory administration has made it clear that they want to see immediate steps taken to address the concerns raised by Azeem Rafiq and, latterly, former Yorkshire Academy player Irfan Amjad.

For his part, though, Caborn believes it's stretching the bounds of incredulity to assume that this problem is one limited to his home county.

^{Former sports minister Richard Caborn wants and independent inquiry}

“I think there’s probably some truth in that,” he says. “We’ve seen that in sport generally. Black Lives Matter has impacted sport as much as any part of our lives and cricket is not immune from that. 

“But when it happens to us in Yorkshire, we feel so sad about it because it means so much to us. That’s certainly the case for me. There’s no doubt that Yorkshire is a multi-cultural county now and has been for a long time. 

“It doesn’t matter about the colour of anyone's skin - I think it’s so sad that our game of cricket hasn’t embraced everyone as it ought to have done. It was a very sad day for me when all this came out.

“There’s a problem, we all recognise that. We have to deal with the cause and not the symptom. Harbouring institutionalised racism is unacceptable and, therefore, you have to get people outside of the world of cricket administration, people that have the skillsets to do the analysis, to come up with a solution. That then needs to be put to the members.

“It should go straight to the members, not the board, because Yorkshire is a members’ club. The members should then endorse a report calling for fundamental change.”

As things stand, following the withdrawal of so many high profile sponsors, the fear is that, despite ECB assurances, Yorkshire will be a shadow of its former self when the county season begins in April. If indeed, the county is on the start-line at all.

“There’s an urgency about this,” says Caborn. “It’s in everybody’s interests to find a solution to this but it has to be a solution that everyone feels comfortable with and can believe in. That’s why cricket has to accept it can’t mark its own homework anymore. It has to be carried out by someone who is truly independent.”