Emerald's statement regarding Yorkshire County Cricket Club

As a long standing supporter of Yorkshire Country Cricket Club (“YCCC”), we are dismayed by the conclusion of an independent panel that the former player, Azeem Rafiq, suffered racial harassment and bullying during his time at the club. Whilst the Club has offered its unreserved apology for this, and has made a number of positive changes in the intervening years, there is clearly still a great deal more to do.

The late Dr Keith Howard OBE, Emerald’s founder and owner, strongly believed in opportunities for all, fairness and respect as the hallmarks of great cricket.  We cannot change what has happened in the past, but we can hold YCCC to its commitment to be anti-racist and to implement in full the recommendations made by the panel. Beyond that, we believe that the Club has the opportunity to become a centre of excellence for diversity within sport, building on the strong community work already being done by YCCC and its Foundation. We will continue to engage regularly with YCCC on this to understand its plans and progress in detail.