An all round sad state of affairs.

Posted by Tony Hutton

I have so far tried to stay at arms length from the ongoing controversy surrounding Yorkshire county cricket club, which together with England's somewhat abject performances in Australia have brought about a rather gloomy outlook on the game as we enter the final weeks of what has been a trying year all round.

However recent attitudes from some quarters of the cricketing press do rather call for comment. I this week had a letter on the Yorkshire situation published in the Cricketer Magazine, who chose to edit it so much that the original message was lost. The theme of my letter was that if their 'investigative journalist' had dug a little deeper into Azeem Rafiq's past behaviour he might have realised that there could be an element of exaggeration in his allegations or even some reasons behind his alleged abuse. However these comments were not considered suitable for publication.

To emphasise the magazine's rather one sided view, their senior correspondent has apparently advocated lifetime bans on a long list of players mentioned in Mr Rafiq's 'evidence' as well as a suspension of Barnsley cricket club. Not much sign here of inclusivity or reconciliation which appeared in Lord Patel's initial statement following his appointment as Chairman.

A further mystery has been the Yorkshire Post newspaper's coverage of events. One would have thought that such a local issue would have brought extensive coverage and a flood of readers' letters. Let us not forget a leading article in the early stages which first suggested Yorkshire should lose the Test Match, which was as much a knee-jerk action as those from the incompetent ECB and the rather prejudiced MPs committee. Then the mysterious business of the paper's cricket correspondent's absence from the scene for the last few weeks and the only further comment being another leading article lauding the impending return of Darren Gough as some sort of messiah. All very strange.

At long last a letter from long-standing member David Tunbridge of Sheffield did appear in Sports Monday a week ago, which certainly echoed my thoughts on the matter, including reference to the sacking of sixteen good people without any opportunity of defending themselves. So although Lord Patel quickly settled with Azeem Rafiq, his next move is certainly open to question and has caused even more divisions which yesterday resulted in all the first team squad requesting permission to approach other counties.

So a sad state of affairs to which it is difficult to see an end. The long suffering members will at last be given a chance to air their opinions at a members' forum to be held at Headingley at 10 a.m. on Saturday 22nd January.