The UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid has intervened in the Yorkshire racism scandal, tweeting his dismay at some of the alleged contents of the county’s investigation into claims made by their former player, Azeem Rafiq.

Javid, who was first elected as an MP in 2010, said that “heads should roll” at Yorkshire and that if the ECB doesn’t take action, “it isn’t fit for purpose.”

The health secretary was responding to a report in ESPNcricinfo that claimed to reveal elements of Yorkshire’s report into Rafiq’s allegations of racism. While Yorkshire have published a summary of the report, the full report has never been made public – the ECB only received the report on October 28.

The ESPNcricinfo article alleged that one Yorkshire player admitted to “regularly” using the slur “P**i” towards Rafiq but was unpunished after the investigation, with the Yorkshire report playing the use of the term down as “banter”.

“The player also admitted to telling other people “don’t talk to him [Rafiq], he’s a P**i”, asking “is that your uncle?” when they saw bearded Asian men and saying “does your dad own those?” in reference to corner shops”, the ESPNcricinfo report reads.

It went on to clarify that while the lawyers responsible for gathering evidence for the investigation concluded that the comments were “capable of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” and that there was evidence that Rafiq “was offended, degraded or humiliated”, the panel responsible for making recommendations based on the investigation stated that it “does not accept that Azeem was offended by [the other player’s] comments, either at the time they were made or subsequently.”

The last 48 hours have seen scrutiny on Yorkshire ramp up to another level. A piece in The Guardian labelled the county as “institutionally racist”, with the author arguing that “there is no other conclusion”.

Earlier today, it was confirmed that Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton is set to be called to answer questions from the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee into the club’s investigation into Rafiq’s claims – which were first reported in an interview with Wisden.com in August 2020.

DCMS chair Julian Knight said in a statement: “This is extremely concerning and it’s clear that Yorkshire County Cricket Club has questions to answer. We have monitored developments around the club’s handling of the serious allegations made by Azeem Rafiq. We want to see much greater transparency from YCCC – it is time for them to answer their critics. We intend to call the Chair of the club before the DCMS Committee to give a much fuller explanation than we have had so far.”

On Tuesday, butter brand Anchor, with whom Yorkshire announced a partnership earlier this year, tweeted: “There is never a place or an excuse for racism. We have no further activity supporting YCCC.”

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Yorkshire Azeem RafiqRacism In English Cricket