News Report / Rod Bransgrove (FICTIONAL PIECE)
Rod Bransgrove has vowed to sack anyone found guilty of racial abuse.
The Hampshire cricket chairman has promised to take tough action on any staff member in light of the case that has rocked Yorkshire Cricket.
Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq claimed that ‘institutional racism’ during his time with the club almost brought him to take his own life. Forcing the resignation of Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton.
The Hampshire Chairman is confident that nothing would happen at the club, but promised strong action if such a thing were to happen:
“We will take every allegation seriously, and never consider it as just banter”.
“I think the punishment that they have received has been very fair. It’s not for me to say what should happen, but I could tell you what would happen at Hampshire, they would be straight out the door no matter who they are.”
“We are a very open and welcoming club, and all the staff and players know from the moment they join the club that any racist or homophobic behaviour will not be tolerated”.
Bransgrove stressed that the safeguarding measures that are already in place at Hampshire, but would welcome new rules introduced by the ECB considering this case:
“We are very proud of our safeguarding measures. We’ve and no complaints here at Hampshire, and we are very proud of that. We have lots of structures and policies in place to ensure that racism will not be tolerated”.
“We have a diversity committee here at Hampshire. Any allegation would go right to the top and as chairman, I would accept full responsibility”.
“I do think the ECB could have been more proactive about this, it’s very disappointing to see that a great club such as Yorkshire involved in such a saga”.
Bransgrove said he was surprised and disappointed when he found out about the Rafiq case:
“I was surprised, I know many of their committee members and they never struck as racist people, but clearly there has been a massive failure in terms of safeguarding and the manner in which they handled the complaints by Rafiq”.