England’s Ashes-winning bowler Matthew Hoggard was accused of racist and discriminatory language as the long-awaited Cricket Disciplinary Commission hearing into Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism in Yorkshire cricket began on Wednesday.
Setting out the England and Wales Cricket Board’s case against Hoggard, Jane Mulcahy KC said that he had used racist and/or discriminatory language during the 2008 cricket season including “You ***** are all the same” and “you lot sit over there” when referring to Rafiq and other Asian players in the Yorkshire squad.
The ECB also alleged that Rafiq was referred to as “Rafa the Kaffir” during the 2008 season and that Hoggard called another player at the club a “token black man” and/or TBM.
Hoggard is one of six Yorkshire players and staff charged under ECB directive 3.3, which governs conduct that is improper or which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the ECB, the game of cricket or any cricketer into disrepute.
Five of those – Hoggard, John Blain, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale and Richard Pyrah – decided last month not to engage any further in the ECB disciplinary process, while the former England captain Michael Vaughan will contest the charges against him at the CDC later this week.
Outlining the ECB’s case against Hoggard, Mulcahy said that the bowler had admitted to using the P-word and “Token Black Man” but denied any racist or discriminatory intent.
Hoggard had also admitted to using the term “Rafa the Kaffir” but denied that he had created it, or that it carried a racist meaning. Instead, he claimed that it was used to denote a person of Muslim faith who did not practise the religion to strict conformity.
But that explanation was dismissed by Mulcahy, who said that as the bowler had played in South Africa he knew a few words of the language. She also pointed out that in 2008 Rafiq was “observant of his religion and did not drink, as he later did in order to fit in”.
Another England cricketer of Asian descent, Monty Panesar, has told the ECB that he had never heard Hoggard speak to anyone in an offensive or inappropriate way, “let alone a manner which could be construed as racially discriminatory”.
However Mulcahy told the CDC panel it should give much greater weight to Hoggard’s “very serious admissions” about his use of language than Panesar’s evidence, which would not be tested in cross-examination.
She added that Hoggard’s admitted use of the P-word, also showed evidence of “a prevailing atmosphere at Yorkshire County Cricket Club at the relevant time in which this word was commonly used.
“This is consistent with Yorkshire’s admission that it failed adequately to address systemic use of racist or discriminatory language over a prolonged period.”
Mulcahy also took the opportunity to correct what she called “a number of misrepresentations about this disciplinary process” made by some of the defendants.
She said that Hoggard’s claim in the media that the “ECB is refusing to hand over evidence is incorrect” and said the respondents had been given hundreds of documents.
Mulcahy also said that Pyrah’s claim that the ECB had never accused him of racism was “false” as specific allegations about his conduct were put to him in a letter on 9 February 2022.
Finally she stated Bresnan’s claim in the media that he had been charged without being interviewed was “evidentially incorrect” given there was a transcript of his interview with the ECB in the documents provided to the panel.
The hearing, which is scheduled to run until 7 March, continues.
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