John Blain to keep job despite racism charges

The Yorkshire racism case has been catching all the headlines recently, with former England captain Michael Vaughan caught in the mix; there have been several others who have been accused of racism by former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq.

Recently, Vaughan was accused of racism by Rafiq, but those charges were dropped, and the former England skipper was found not guilty as it was stated that Rafiq was mistaken when he heard the lot making racist remarks. The verdict of the case was concluded as ‘not proved’.

Also, one of the people who have been caught up in the racism case is top Scottish cricket coach John Blain. The 44-year-old was accused of making racist remarks against Pakistan players.

However, despite being accused of racism and being found guilty by the disciplinary committee last week, Blain has still been able to keep his job as the director of cricket at the elite Grange Cricket Club in Edinburgh.

John used the word ‘P**i’ a lot: Rafiq

Azeem Rafiq came forward to open up about John Blain’s situation. The 32-year-old talked about what Blain used to say and how they were also justified in the long run.

"John used the word ‘P**i’ a lot, He said it directly to me about other people and tried to justify it by saying it was like calling a British person a ‘Brit’. He used that word so often, and it was such a normalised language for him, that I cannot pinpoint exact matches or dates on which he used the word ‘P**i’, although I do recall that he would use it when we were training at Headingley," Rafiq was quoted as saying by the Daily Record. 

"I heard John refer to Pakistani people as ‘Pakis’ when we were talking about some players in the Yorkshire League at the time…rather than apologise or stop using the word ‘P**i’, John simply said it was like calling a British person a ‘Brit’," he added.