{"id":161145,"date":"2021-11-16T19:53:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T20:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161145"},"modified":"2021-11-16T23:02:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T23:02:20","slug":"icon-dragged-into-crisis-engulfing-english-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161145","title":{"rendered":"Icon dragged into crisis engulfing English cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

English cricket<\/a> commentator David Lloyd has apologised after racist text messages were aired during Azeem Rafiq's testimony on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Rafiq spoke at a British parliamentary hearing today<\/a>, where he revealed that the long-time Sky Sports commentator had made remarks about the impact of Asian players on club culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, 'The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don't go in there', 'Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone'," Rafiq said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie prodigy signs 2022 Formula 1 deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Crucial points dropped by Socceroos<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"And then personally this guy doesn't even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.<\/p>\n

"That was David Lloyd, he's been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that's what I got sent to me."<\/p>\n

Lloyd apologised for the remarks on social media a few hours later.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BumbleCricket\/status\/1460650330627186694<\/a><\/p>\n

"In October 2020, I had a private message exchange with a third party involved in cricket, about a number of topics," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

"In these messages, I referred to allegations about Azeem Rafiq which I had heard from within the game. I also made some comments about the Asian cricket community.<\/p>\n

"I deeply regret my actions, and I apologise most sincerely to Azeem and to the Asian cricket community for doing this, and for any offence caused.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Papali'i rejects huge Dolphins offer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Scottie Pippen says Michael Jordan 'ruined basketball'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The 73-year-old's employer, Sky, issued a statement as well.<\/p>\n

"Sky is committed to actively championing inclusion in cricket – and in all sports – and opposing all forms of discrimination. We will be investigating the comments attributed to David Lloyd in today's select committee hearing."<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A formal investigation was commissioned by Yorkshire cricket in September 2020 into 43 allegations made by Rafiq regarding systemic racism within the sport, and at his club.<\/p>\n

A fortnight ago, chairman Roger Hutton resigned<\/a> amid the fallout from Rafiq's racism allegations<\/a> against the English cricket club.<\/p>\n

A week later, coach Andrew Gale was suspended over a tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The club's director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, has taken stress-related leave.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English cricket commentator David Lloyd has apologised after racist text messages were aired during Azeem Rafiq's testimony on Tuesday. Rafiq spoke at a British parliamentary […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161147,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161145\/revisions\/161147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}