LONDON: Yorkshire have confirmed documents relating to allegations of racism against the county cricket club were deleted under the previous regime.
A Cricket Discipline Commission hearing will start in London next week but no Yorkshire representatives will be present after they admitted to four amended charges brought by the England and Wales Cricket Board over the club's handling of former player Azeem Rafiq's allegations.
It has now been confirmed that one of the charges relates to the deletion or destruction of both electronic and paper documents but while this occurred before current chairman Kamlesh Patel took over, the county would not say who was responsible.
"After 5 November 2021, it was discovered that emails and documents, both held electronically by the club and in paper copy, had been irretrievably deleted from both servers and laptops and otherwise destroyed," a club statement said.
"After a thorough independent investigation it was established that the deletion and destruction of documents date from a time period prior to the appointment of Lord Patel and relate to the allegations of racism and the club's response to those allegations.
"The club is not prepared to conjecture publicly as to why this occurred, who was responsible or the motivation for doing so."
Next week's disciplinary hearing will start on Wednesday but the only charged individual still set to appear is ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.
Andrew Gale, Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Richard Pyrah and John Blain have refused to engage with the process.
The Cricket Discipline Commission panel will still hear the charges against those five in their absence.
Gary Ballance, also charged, has already admitted using racially discriminatory language and will not appear.
Pakistan-born Rafiq, 31, first raised allegations of racism and bullying in September 2020, related to his two spells at Yorkshire.
He told a British parliamentary committee in December 2022 that the abuse he and his family had faced had forced him to leave the UK.
Yorkshire admit documents deleted in cricket race case
https://arab.news/znfeb
Yorkshire admit documents deleted in cricket race case
- Emails and documents held by the club in paper copy and electronic form, deleted from servers and laptops, says Yorkshire
- Cricketer Azeem Rafiq levelled serious allegations of racism and bullying in September 2020 during his stint at the cricket club
Qatar’s Al-Attiyah wins Stage 6 for Dacia, retakes Dakar lead
- Al-Attiyah, 55, has now completed 19 successive Dakars with at least one stage win every time
RIYADH: Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah will lead the Dakar Rally into its second and final week after winning the sixth stage in the Saudi desert on Friday to take over at the top from South African rival Henk Lategan.
Al-Attiyah, a five-time Dakar winner now competing for the Dacia Sandriders, had been second overnight but turned a deficit of more than three minutes into a 6 minutes and 10 second advantage over the 326km timed stage between Hail and Riyadh.
Saturday is a rest day before the rally resumes in Riyadh on Sunday with seven more stages to the finish in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast on Jan. 17.
Al-Attiyah won Friday’s stage by two minutes and 58 seconds from teammate and nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, Dacia’s first Dakar one-two, with Toyota’s American Seth Quintero third.
Overall, three different manufacturers filled podium positions with Toyota’s Lategan second and Ford’s Nani Roma third — his first time on the virtual podium since 2019.
Al-Attiyah, 55, has now completed 19 successive Dakars with at least one stage win every time.
Friday was his career 49th stage win in the car category — one off the record held jointly by Ari Vatanen and “Mr Dakar” Stephane Peterhansel.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, father of the Formula One driver and a four-time Dakar winner still racing hard at the age of 63, was in fourth place for Ford with teammate Mattias Ekstrom fifth and Loeb sixth.
American Mitch Guthrie, stage winner on Thursday for Ford, dropped to seventh from sixth.
In the motorcycle category there was no change at the top, although leader and defending champion Daniel Sanders was handed a 6-minute penalty for riding at 98kph in a zone limited to 50kph.
KTM rider Sanders now leads Honda’s American Ricky Brabec, the stage winner after the Australian’s penalty, by 45 seconds with Argentine rider Luciano Benavides more than 10 minutes behind in third.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster all day. Unfortunately, I got a speeding penalty, so that will set me back a bit,” said Sanders.
“I just pushed as much as I could today but it’s hard to do good in the sand, especially opening. I did the best I could and I’ve got to stop making silly mistakes. I haven’t pieced this first week together so well.”
