Yorkshire punished for extremely serious misconduct over racism experienced by ex-player Azeem Rafiq

LONDON (AP) — Yorkshire has been fined and docked points in two formats of cricket over the club’s “extremely serious” misconduct in relation to the racism experienced by former player Azeem Rafiq. The English club was fined 400,000 pounds ($515,00) on Friday with 300,000 pounds of this suspended for two years. It lost 48 County Championship points and four in the T20 Blast from this season’s competitions by an independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel after admitting four charges. Yorkshire released a statement accepting the sanctions. Rafiq initially spoke out in 2020 about the racism and bullying he experienced across two spells at the county. He also gave harrowing testimony about his experiences to a parliamentary committee in November 2021.