David Lloyd issues an apology and expresses ‘deep regret’ for making an offensive comment about the Asian cricket community after Azeem Rafiq named the commentator during DCMS committee hearing in Westminster
David Lloyd has apologised to Azeem Rafiq for making offensive comments about the former Yorkshire player and the Asian cricket community.
Rafiq claimed in Tuesday’s Digital, 文化, Media and Sport committee that the ex-England coach and Sky Sports pundit had attempted to ‘smear’ him in messages to a media colleague last year.
在声明中, Lloyd confirmed a ‘private message exchange’ had taken place that he ‘deeply regrets’, with Sky revealing they will now investigate the 74-year-old’s comments.
Rafiq mentioned Lloyd during his evidence to MPs as an example of the ‘denial, briefings, cover-up, smearing’ that he alleged took place after he went public with his racism complaints against Yorkshire.
他说: ‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising. That was David Lloyd.

David Lloyd has apologised after being named by Azeem Rafiq amid cricket’s racism storm

Rafiq named Bumble among a host of figures in cricket to have made offensive comments

Lloyd expressed ‘deep regret’ for the comment he made in a statement posted on Twitter
‘I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. 我想, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
作为回应, Lloyd admitted: ‘In October 2020, I had a private message exchange with a third party involved in cricket, about a number of topics.
‘In these messages, I referred to allegations about Azeem Rafiq which I had heard from within the game. I also made some comments about the Asian cricket community.

The spin bowler told the Digital, 文化, Media and Sport Committee racism was rife at the side and no one in leadership challenged it. He is pictured as he began to weep during the testimony

Gary Ballance (pictured playing for England against South Africa in July 2017) is among the cricket stars accused of being racist between 2008 和 2018 by Rafiq


Rafiq hit out at England Test captain Joe Root (剩下), claiming he was on those nights out where he was called a ‘P***’. But he later said Root was a good man. He claimed fellow international star Hales (对) named his black dog Kevin after Ballance often used it as a term for black people
‘I deeply regret my actions, and I apologise most sincerely to Azeem and to the Asian cricket community for doing this, and for any offence caused.
‘I am strongly committed to making cricket a more inclusive sport. It is very obvious now that more work needs to be done and I will do everything I can to remove discrimination from the sport I love, and the sport that has been my life for over 50 年份。'
Sky said in a statement: ‘Sky is committed to actively championing inclusion in cricket – and in all sports – and opposing all forms of discrimination.
‘We will be investigating the comments attributed to David Lloyd in today’s select committee hearing.’

Lloyd insisted he is committed to making cricket a more inclusive game following Rafiq’s case