Trouble is brewing at Chelmsford, where the potential for Essex to follow Yorkshire in becoming the second county engulfed by a huge racism scandal is gathering momentum.
Just as Essex are on tenterhooks awaiting punishment from a cricket discipline commission (CDC) investigation into charges of bringing the game into disrepute comes the shock departure from the club of the man who blew the whistle on the whole sorry affair.
Essex chief executive John Stephenson told a members’ forum on Monday that Wasim Haq, who accused former chair John Faragher of making a racist comment — which Faragher vehemently denies — and his fellow board member Paul Harvey had resigned, throwing the club into further turmoil. Astonishingly, Faragher and his supporters on the board remain, even though Essex have accepted the charges.
Potentially even more damagingly, Essex are bracing themselves for damning revelations from the independent report they commissioned into three former players’ allegations of racism at the club.
It was Haq who wanted Faragher properly investigated for allegedly using the n-word in a committee meeting in 2017 and he was supported in his quest for an emergency meeting by Harvey.
But because the incident was not properly looked into until the Azeem Rafiq affair changed the whole attitude of the game towards racism, the pair appear to be paying the price for trying to do the right thing.
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