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Former England bowler Tim Bresnan used a racial slur towards Azeem Rafiq’s sister, a hearing into allegations of racism at Yorkshire has been told.
Rafiq claimed Bresnan used the term towards his sister Amna during a media day at Headingley in 2014.
Bresnan, 38, denies the allegation.
The claim was part of the evidence heard on the first day of the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) hearing into alleged racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Rafiq said former Yorkshire team-mates Bresnan and Gary Ballance used the phrase in reference to his sister’s Pakistani heritage when they saw her at the media day while she was on work experience with the county.
Ballance has previously admitted using the term. He has admitted liability in response to his charge and will not participate.
The allegation formed part of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) case against Bresnan, who has been charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
The ECB’s lawyer Jane Mulcahy, speaking at the International Arbitration Centre in London, said Rafiq also alleged Bresnan used the racial slur towards or about Asian women he found attractive from about 2014 onwards.
Rafiq also claimed Bresnan used the phrase to refer to an Asian woman who walked past them in a bar at a team hotel in Birmingham in July 2018.
Bresnan, who played 23 Tests and 85 one-day internationals for England, said he had never and would never use these terms.
In his initial response to the ECB and an interview with the governing body, Bresnan denied he had ever met Amna Rafiq. Later, he admitted he had seen her from afar when she was working at Leicester.
Bresnan also denied ever being alone in a bar with Rafiq.
What is happening in the hearing?
It has been more than two and a half years since former Yorkshire spinner Rafiq first made claims of racism at the county, later calling English cricket “institutionally racist”.
The hearing concludes on 9 March and the first day of proceedings, along with the following three days, are being held in public. The rest will be conducted in private.
A three-person panel will hear disciplinary proceedings brought against Yorkshire and seven individuals who were all charged by the ECB with bringing the game into disrepute.
The panel comprises CDC chair, lawyer and former Derbyshire batsman Tim O’Gorman, Mark Milliken-Smith KC – a lawyer with specialist knowledge of sports law – and Dr Seema Patel, a senior law lecturer at Nottingham Trent University.
Former Yorkshire and England captain Michael Vaughan is set to be the only charged individual to appear in person following a number of withdrawals from the disciplinary process.
Other ex-Yorkshire players Bresnan, Matthew Hoggard, John Blain, Andrew Gale and Richard Pyrah have all withdrawn, while Ballance has admitted liability in response to his charge and will not participate.
Yorkshire will also not attend after the club pleaded guilty to four ECB amended charges.
By Jack Skelton
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