Former England cricket star Gary Ballance tonight admitted calling his ex-Yorkshire team-mate and ‘best mate’ Azeem Rafiq a ‘P**i’.
Ballance, who played 23 Tests and 16 one-day internationals between 2013-2017, released a long and emotional statement on Wednesday, just hours after MailOnline revealed he was the player at the heart of the race scandal.
The batsman accepted he was responsible for some of the offensive and derogatory terms that Rafiq revealed he was subjected to during his time at Headingley.
This is said to have included telling other people ‘don’t talk to him (Rafiq), he’s a P**i, asking ‘is that your uncle?’ when bearded Asian men were in view and saying in reference to corner shops: ‘Does your Dad own those?’.
The 31-year-old attempted to offer some context of his ‘incredibly close relationship’ with Rafiq during their time together at the club, claiming both men ‘said things privately to each other which were not acceptable’ but made it clear he had remorse for his part of those exchanges.
However, Rafiq responded on Twitter tonight by saying: ‘Funny how things change from complete denial to I accepted everything over a 14 month period ??’
In his statement, Ballance wrote: ‘It has been reported that I used a racial slur and, as I told the independent enquiry, I accept that I did so and I regret doing so. To be clear – I deeply regret some of the language I used in my younger years.
‘I do not wish to discredit Rafa by repeating the words and statements that he made about me and others but I have to be clear that this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate.
‘I regret that these exchanges took place but at no time did I believe or understand that it had caused Rafa distress. If I had believed that then I would have stopped immediately.
‘He was my best mate in cricket and I cared deeply for him. To my knowledge, it has never been alleged that I…
Source : dailymail
