'You were the cultural diversity officer, why didn't you blow the whistle?'
17 November 2021, 14:54 | Updated: 17 November 2021, 15:03
Ex-Yorkshire Cricket Board member put on spot by Nick Ferrari
Yorkshire Cricket Board's former cultural diversity officer was grilled by Nick Ferrari on why he "didn't blow the whistle" on Azeem Rafiq's racism allegations.
Tony Bowry, who was the Cultural Diversity Officer between 1996 and 2011, said "God knows" why he didn't do more to raise the issue of racism that Mr Rafiq faced during his time at the club.
It follows Mr Rafiq coming forward about the racism he experienced during his time at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, whic he described as "inhuman" bullying.
Nick asked Mr Bowry: "You served as the cultural diversity officer sir, why didn't you blow the whistle?"
Mr Bowry replied: "God knows, god knows why not. We did what we could at the time, what we thought was right at the time, so we just reported it."
"Respectfully, what did you do that you thought, was right?" Nick asked, adding: "Some of these were lads looking to you as an older chap to have their back, to have their corner, respectfully sir, you should have blown the whistle. You failed in your job.
"I didn't fail in my job," Mr Bowry said, explaining he reported it to the board like they were "supposed to".
Read more: England cricket stars apologise to Azeem Rafiq after 'disturbing' racism allegations
Read more: Azeem Rafiq: Caller tells LBC he was afraid to get on a train after racist attack
Caller sets out shocking scale of racism he's faced in the UK
Mr Bowry said they rallied round the board to raise the concerns, but nothing was ever done.
He told Nick about an incident of racial abuse he was subjected to during his cricketing years.
"We went to the CRE, which is the commission for racial equality and reported the incident, because the official at the cricket match I was involved in said he did not think it was racial enough to report it to the board," he explained.
"And so we reported it to the board, myself and my captain."
On the question of whether captains such as Michael Vaughan, Joe Root and Andrew Gale should have done more, Mr Bowry replied: "I'm not sure how much they've done, I don't think they've done anything in fact.
"They must've heard and seen something at some point."
