Reports: Documents of racism allegations by Azeem Rafiq were deleted during Lord Patel's tenure as chairperson

New documents of evidence have surfaced which are expected to raise doubts on the Yorkshire’s credibility plea at the ongoing racism hearings. There have been claims that Lord Patel- the outgoing chairperson – was unfairly influenced by the ECB during his time in the role.

After some negotiations with the ECB, Yorkshire pleaded guilty to four amended charges instead of the six levelled against them and decided not to be represented at this month's hearings at the International Arbitration Centre in London.

One of the charges had relation to the “the deletion and destruction of documents” about Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism at the club while Yorkshire claimed that it had taken place in a “time period prior to the appointment of Lord Patel.”

According to a report in Daily Mail, new evidence has emerged which makes this claim doubtful, as senior officials at the club state that Yorkshire still had the documents in question in March 2022, four months after Lord Patel had replaced Roger Hutton as the chairperson.

Following the claims, Yorkshire issued a new statement on Sunday, March 5 evening, stating that the data deletion did take place, but didn’t specify when.

"Subsequent to the appointment of Lord Patel on November 5, 2021, it is understood that certain documents and emails created prior to his appointment - and relating to the allegations of racism and the club's response to those allegations - were unable to be located," the statement read.

"We engaged independent specialists to investigate and we are informed that their conclusion was that emails and documents, held electronically by the club and in paper copy, had been irretrievably deleted from both servers and laptops and otherwise destroyed."

The hearing, which will be concluded this week, resumes in a private session on Monday before the lawyers give their final speeches, including those representing Michael Vaughan, the only person who has challenged the allegations levelled against him in the court.

On March 3(Friday), Lord Patel’s relationship with the ECB came under the spotlight from Vaughan’s Lawyer, Christopher Stoner KC. Patel had recently claimed in an interview with the Eastern Eye that ECB had asked him to dismiss 16 members of Yorkshire's back-room staff in December 2021 but didn’t back him as the situation became tough.

Meena Botros, the ECB's director of legal and integrity, refuted the claims that ECB had exhorted Patel to sack individuals. However, he emphasized on the board’s ability as the regulator of the sport to not influence the actions taken by its member counties.

"That's just not what happened, is it?" Stoner asked. "It is what happened," Botros replied.

Michael Vaughan denies Azeem Rafiq's racism allegations

The issue of the data deletion has not been raised in the proceedings yet. However, Vaughan, who appeared as a witness on Friday, told the hearing: "Whatever happens, this has a terrible look on the game."

He has firmly denied Rafiq's claim that he allegedly told a group of four Asian players, "there's too many of you lot", before a Yorkshire match in 2009.

"The comment I have been alleged to have said is a comment where a team-mate would not be able to perform to their maximum, and that's not what I'm about," Vaughan said.

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