The chairman of the ECB Yorkshire South Premier League has called former Yorkshire off-spinner Azeem Rafiq, who this week revealed to ESPNcricinfo his experiences of racism at Yorkshire left him on the brink of suicide, a “very difficult” person in a blog post on the league’s website.

While Roger Pugh, the Yorkshire South Premier League chairman, wrote that he was “not in a position to comment on” Rafiq’s allegations, he described Rafiq as “being both discourteous and disrespectful.”

Rafiq first spoke publicly about his experiences of racism as a professional cricketer in an interview with Wisden.com in August, where he alleged that he played under “an openly racist captain” and that while playing for Yorkshire, a player said, ‘There’s too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that,’ in the direction of Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Initially, Yorkshire CCC refused to comment on the allegation but 17 days after the Wisden.com interview with Rafiq was published, Yorkshire announced that they were launching a formal investigation into the matter.

In his interview with ESPNcricinfo, Rafiq said: “I know how close I was to committing suicide during my time at Yorkshire. I was living my family’s dream as a professional cricketer, but inside I was dying. I was dreading going to work. I was in pain every day. There were times I did things to try and fit in that, as a Muslim, I now look back on and regret. I’m not proud of it at all.

“But as soon as I stopped trying to fit in, I was an outsider. There were no coaches on the staff from a similar background who understood what it was like. Yorkshire don’t want to listen and they don’t want to change. And part of the reason for that is the people who were involved in the incidents I’m talking about are still at the club. They just want to sweep it under the carpet.

“Look at the facts and figures. Look at a squad photograph. Look at the coaches. How many non-white faces do you see? Despite the ethnic diversity of the cities in Yorkshire, despite the love for the game from Asian communities, how many people from those backgrounds are making it into the first team? It’s obvious to anyone who cares that there’s a problem. Do I think there is institutional racism? It’s at its peak in my opinion. It’s worse than it’s ever been. My only motivation now is to prevent anyone else feeling the same pain.”

In his blog post, Pugh, a retired civil servant and former league umpire, wrote: “Yesterday, I read that Azeem Rafiq had made allegations of ‘institutional racism’ at Yorkshire CCC. Of course, I am not in a position to comment on these allegations, but that they should come from him does not surprise me.

“I have had contact with Azeem both as an umpire and an administrator, and found him very difficult to deal with – being both discourteous and disrespectful. Indeed, over the five years in which we have been in existence, he is the only person in our league that I have had any issues with. Several of our umpires and one of our clubs also had problems with him in 2016, when he was back with YCCC, and I wrote to the club to draw attention to his behaviour – a step not taken lightly. I am not a religious man, but a biblical quote seems to me apt here. It is, ‘as ye sow, so shall ye reap.’”