LONDON: English county cricket club Essex have been fined £50,000 ($61,500) and reprimanded following a racist remark made by their former chairman, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced Thursday.
The county admitted John Faragher used the highly offensive term during a board meeting in 2017 and accepted they had failed to hold a timely investigation into the matter.
Faragher, who resigned last November, has denied using the phrase.
An independent cricket discipline panel concluded that a points deduction would be inappropriate and instead settled on a financial penalty, of which £15,000 has been suspended.
The incidents at Essex, based in Chelmsford, came to light following the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal.
The former spinner told a parliamentary committee in November about the abuse he suffered while playing for Yorkshire, saying he had been driven to thoughts of suicide.
His revelations led to a mass clear out of senior boardroom figures and coaching staff at Yorkshire, as well as leading to the unearthing of racist incidents at several other first-class counties.
The independent panel looking into the Essex case praised John Stephenson, the Essex chief executive and interim chairman, for attempting to tackle the situation on his appointment last year but added he had been hampered by “a lamentable logjam at board level.”
The panel said: “The use of racist and discriminatory language such as this is plainly unacceptable — its utterance by a club chair is all the more deplorable.”
Essex said in a statement they had a “zero-tolerance policy toward racism and any form of discrimination” and were working to implement the ECB’s 12-point anti-discrimination plan drawn up in response to Rafiq’s revelations.
English cricket team Essex fined for racism by official
https://arab.news/5bz2g
English cricket team Essex fined for racism by official
- The county admitted John Faragher used the highly offensive term during a board meeting in 2017
- Faragher, who resigned last November, has denied using the phrase
Kuwait welcomes its new PFL MENA champion
- Mohammad Alaqraa, 25, hailed on return home after welterweight title win over Badreddine Diani in Alkhobar
DUBAI: On Dec.15 Mohammad Alaqraa touched down at Kuwait International Airport carrying something he had been chasing for years: the PFL MENA welterweight championship belt.
His arrival came just 10 days after a unanimous decision victory over Morocco’s Badreddine Diani at Dhahran Expo in Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. It marked a significant milestone for the Kuwaiti fighter and the combat sports landscape in the Middle East.
Greeted at the airport by his father, brother, excited fans and media representatives, Alaqraa spoke about his plans.
“It’s been a long journey, thanks to everyone that came to the airport and past events. Just like I promised I’ll get the MENA championship, my goal is to raise Kuwait’s name in this sport (and) now I promise next time I’ll come back with a world title,” he said.
Alaqraa’s arrival became an impromptu celebration. Fans had phone cameras ready for selfies and videos as he emerged holding his belt.
The championship fight against Diani was a full five-round affair that showcased Alaqraa’s growth. The judges scored the bout 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 in his favor. Alaqraa had established control through pressure wrestling, fence work, and a steady jab.
The win was sweet after losing by referee’s stoppage to Omar El-Dafrawy in the 2024 PFL MENA Finals.
Alaqraa defeated Omar Hussein and Ayman Galal en route to the 2025 finals, with his semifinal victory over Galal ending in just 21 seconds with an oblique kick, the fastest finish in PFL MENA history.
At 25 years old, Alaqraa now holds a 10-1 record in MMA. His background encompasses multiple martial arts disciplines developed since childhood. He holds a judo black belt and finished first in an International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation tournament before turning professional in 2021.
Since leaving Kuwait at 17 to pursue MMA, Alaqraa has trained at American Kickboxing Academy under head coach Javier Mendez, the gym that has produced champions including Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.
Alaqraa graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in industrial systems engineering while developing his fighting career.
