Magrat Garlick
Global Moderator
What a surprise that Ballance took up the k word huh
-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
*Official* Yorkshire CCC racism crisis thread
- Thread starter ImpatientLime
- Start date
grecian
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Apropo of nothing this
is the front page of the Newspaper that Vaughan writes for, hmm so much going on here...
is the front page of the Newspaper that Vaughan writes for, hmm so much going on here...
anil1405
International Captain
Boosts the ego.
duffer
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Martyn Moxon, Director of Cricket
61. During my time at YCCC, Martyn Moxon was Head Coach and then later, Director of Cricket. He is the boss and very powerful within the club. He had himself played for Yorkshire in the 1990s, during the period in which Ismail Dawood and Adil Ditta had played at the club and reported systemic institutional racism. My key concerns about Martyn were:
(i) I faced racist and discriminatory treatment within the club and no action was taken to stop it: All of the incidents that I have described above involving other players making racist comments towards me and treating me unfairly happened on his watch. Many of the incidents even happened in front of him. He did nothing to stop it or take action on it – even after I raised complaints;
(ii) I was discriminated against and denied important professional opportunities within and outside of the club; and
(iii) I was discriminated against and not offered the support I needed and that I saw offered to other players.
62. Coming through as a young player, I did not have much to do with him personally. I first remember Martyn around the time of my debut. Darren Gough was my captain and he wanted me to play three weeks before I ultimately made my debut, but Martyn stopped that. I wasn’t told why and never understood why, I just knew it came from Martyn. As set out above, I had to deal with media backlash after my debut because of the controversy that happened around my passport, Pakistani origin and eligibility. I was only 17 and had journalists coming to my house and accusing me of hiding my Pakistani origin. It was devastating. Martyn was, at that time, Head Coach and my direct line of contact, but he didn’t reach out to me or offer me any help or support.
62. In 2012, I made my breakthrough into the first team so I started to see a lot more of Martyn. During our pre-season tour in 2013, I had a debate with the physio in Barbados. Andrew had shouted at me and given me a massive dressing down in front of everyone in a bar. Again, I was made to be the problem – club management seemed to be completely blind and insensitive to the sociocultural context I faced within the club and how I was treated within this club culture.
63. Throughout my time at the club, I felt that I was discriminated against and faced unnecessarily harsh criticism over my performance and conduct and this was used to deny me important professional opportunities. This was my experience at the time, which has since been confirmed from what I have read in the disclosure material. By way of example:
(a) In 2014, I was released from the Club by Martyn Moxon over a phone call. He indicated to me that this was as a result of my performance. Although I had suffered from YIPS in 2013 (PHB218), this was not a reoccurring problem and Martyn himself had confirmed on 24 April 2014 that “I had got over the YIPS problem” (PHB221). It was during this time in 2012 that I had been drinking, together with Adil Rashid, to try and fit into the Club culture. In retrospect, the constant racist comments and “banter” was affecting my mental state and my performance, But I was not offered support from the club, even though people knew I was struggling. It was in this period I had my first suicidal thoughts – and was one night on the brink of suicide. Even though I had got over the YIPS problem, I was released from the Club. I left the Club disillusioned in 2014.
(b) I returned to the club in 2016, persuaded by Alex Lees and Jason Gillespie, and initially I thrived and performed better than ever before: I was lead wicket taker and helped Yorkshire get to the finals. 2017 should have seen me consolidate that and build on it, progressing my career towards England and the franchise leagues. But throughout 2017 and 2018, I struggled as a result of the bullying, targeting and racism I faced – to the point that, again, I had suicidal thoughts. Despite my disclosure Martyn to about this in August 2017, nothing was done. Soon after, I faced accusations of “faking injuries” and “ruling myself out” of selection by teammates, which meant that senior management (i.e. Martyn and others) were openly discussing my confidential medical records and their assessments of them. I was being left out of training and games. Despite having performed the best I had in my career in the white ball formats, I was being denied the second team red ball games, which – for a capped player – was unheard of. As Director of Cricket, Martyn was responsible for my professional development at the club. I felt very let down by him and felt I was not being provided the same opportunities and support as white British players.
(c) In February 2018, Martyn then held me back from being able to participate in an Ice Cricket tournament. The tournament would have seen me play in televised matches alongside high profile, franchised players, assisting me with visibility to the leagues. It would have involved missing one day of training but Martyn refused to release me. At this point, I really felt that the club – and Martyn - were holding me back from opportunities and on a discriminatory basis: other white players were released for league cricket (for example, David Willy and Liam Plunkett were allowed to miss games to play for the IPL), but I was not offered the same opportunities, even though it meant missing less cricket.
64. By this time in 2018, I became depressed and suicidal. I felt that Martyn and the club were not supporting my career and were actively taking decisions which I felt were discriminatory and were limiting my opportunities. YCCC controlled my career and were not making decisions in my best interests.
65. When I returned to the Club after the bereavement period which was in or around June 2018, on the first day, Martyn Moxon pulled me into a room and started highlighting to me the problems that I had caused by not speaking to the coach (Andrew Gale) and the captain (Steve Patterson). I actually thought that he was asking to speak to me alone to ask how I was and how the family were after the trauma that we had endured, but his only concern was that the coach and captain had complained about me. I tried to explain the situation and how I had been assured I would play which is why I had agreed to go and miss a critical medical appointment with my wife (which was critical in her pregnancy complications) but ended up with twelfth man duties instead. I reiterated that had he not done that and had I known I wasn’t playing, I would have been with my wife at a crucial medical appointment. But Martyn showed me no sympathy and categorically stated that I was a problem (see further below). Martyn’s behaviour confirmed to me that I was never going to get any support from the club no matter what I went through.
66. Throughout 2018, I had tried to continue with my cricket, but was struggling with the stress of what was happening at home. The failure of YCCC and Martyn, as Director of Cricket, to provide me with adequate understanding, pastoral support and care (which I had seen extended to other players during my time at the club, notably Gary Ballance, Johnny Bairstow and others) to assist me through this period made matters worse. I was not given adequate time off, I was pressured to continue playing, there was no understanding or sensitivity – in fact, numerous times the fact I had time off and was affected by my family’s personal tragedy, was held against me and it was made out as if I was exaggerating the extent of the problem (see further below). Martyn’s conduct towards me after my bereavement and loss of my son was the last straw for me.
67. I repeatedly raised my concern with Martyn about the conduct of others at the club and how that was impacting upon me. He never took my concerns or my allegations about institutional racism seriously. In fact, after I was released from the club after making my disclosures to Martyn about racism (see Section E below), Martyn’s family members made public comment on social media, including tweeting that any “insinuation of racism” was “laughable” and “unacceptable” (PHB 533-537). Martyn’s family’s apparent knowledge of my internal complaints of racism could only have come from Martyn sharing with them information about my disclosure to YCCC, which was confidential, and provides a pretty revealing insight into the attitude towards my efforts to raise concern about institutional racism.
Tim Bresnan
55. Tim Bresnan made his debut as a 16 year old in the era of Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan. He was an understudy to Matthew Hoggard. In 2008 / 2009 when I started, Tim was a senior player and had played for England, so had a lot of influence at YCCC and over younger players. In 2016 when I came back to YCCC, he was a senior player who was declining. I noticed that his relationship with Jason Gillespie, our coach at that time, was difficult and I thought his behaviour towards Jason was disrespectful. Jason left the club at the end of 2016 and this is when life at YCCC got worse for me: Andrew became coach, and Gary and Tim were captains.
56. Tim was very powerful at YCCC: he had played for Yorkshire all his life, was captain and had played for England. It also is worth noting that Tim and Andrew Gale are related: Tim is Andrew’s brother in-law. They always supported each other. In my experience, they were a double act: Tim would tag along and join in with Andrew’s racist comments and they bounced off each other in terms of the bullying. As with Andrew, Tim frequently made racist comments and was unduly harsh towards me compared to white British players, which became so unbearable that I made a formal complaint against him in 2017 (see further below).
57. By way of brief overview, these are some examples of the treatment I received from Tim:
(i) Participation in and encouragement of racist comments: Tim would participate with and encourage Gary in the racist comments and jokes that were directed at me (for example, comments like “is that your uncle’s shop?”), laughing along at such remarks. Tim was a senior player who had played for England. I believe that if Tim had pulled Gary up, rather than encouraging him, it would not have continued.
(ii) Unduly harsh criticism of my performance and restricting my professional opportunities: In 2016 when I came back to YCCC, Yorkshire were at the bottom of the T20 league and struggling in one day cricket. However, on my return, Yorkshire made it to the finals and I was the lead wicket taker of the season. Despite this, in 2017-2018:
(a) During warmups in 2017, Tim would come up to me and comment about my bowling and talk down to me, making me feel unwanted in the team. When we started playing in 2017, he stopped giving me opportunities to bowl. Given my performance in 2016, this did not make sense.
(b) During the T20 v Derbyshire on 3 August 2017, I accidentally hit a stump with my leg, a no ball was given and the free hit went for a 6. It was a freak, one-off accident. At the end of the game, Tim singled me out in the dressing room, shouting abuse in front of my teammates, claiming that I had caused us to lose the game. Of course, that wasn’t true: many factors that day had contributed to the loss, but I was blamed. I went home in tears (and later made a complaint - see below). By way of comparison, in the game before (against Lancashire on 15 July 2017), Adam Lyth made an error by running down the pitch getting caught when we were ahead on Duckworth Lewis and were about to come off the field at any moment because of rain, which literally cost us the game. In the dressing room, Tim and Andrew praised and encouraged Adam. There is a clear difference: Adam’s error had cost us the win, my one-off freak accident had not. In any event, any number of things during any game contribute to the outcome. And yet, I was singled out and abused. It was this kind of obvious differential treatment between how white British players were treated and how I was treated (and the other Pakistani players, like Adil and Rana) that I noticed was a pattern.
(iii) Belittling comments: Aside from belittling comments about my performance, Tim made comments that showed that no matter what I did, I was not valued. For example, in the winter of 2017, I was extremely excited to have been given the opportunity to travel to play in Hong Kong with a number of high-profile players, and where Brian Lara would be my mentor. A teammate commented on this, saying how great it was but Tim responded with disdain and said in front of everyone, “it’s nothing, anyone can get a gig there (Hong Kong) it’s nothing”.
58. In light of Tim’s behaviour, I made numerous attempts to raise my concern:
(i) In 2017, prior to the T20 Durham match at Riverside on 4 August 2017, I went to Richard Pyrah (Assistant Coach) and told him how uncomfortable Tim was making me feel with his constant digs. Richard dismissed it and simply said “oh, you know what Bres is like, just try to ignore him”. (Richard, Tim and Andrew were drinking buddies so I didn’t have much hope that my complaint would come to anything).
(ii) I also took my concerns to my agent, Will Quinn, telling him he had to get me out of YCCC because of how Tim was treating me, to the point it was causing me to have suicidal thoughts, so I needed to get out. Will took my disclosure to Martyn Moxon (see my text messages with Will Quinn: PHB 364; 370-374). Martyn Moxon and Andrew Gale then spoke to me at Scarborough (6 August 2017) and I told them I felt isolated, that I was being picked on compared to people in similar situations who were not singled out like I was and I described the incidents outlined above. Martyn and Andrew admitted that Tim had issues and that they would be speaking to him about how he had treated me.
59. After the disclosure to Martyn Moxon, Tim later apologised to me, but it was lip service and didn’t change anything. In fact, after my disclosure it got even worse for me – I was getting left out of training and games and I believe my disclosure caused more problems for me and led to further targeting and bullying.
60. I note here that I was being treated as a problem and considered to be “difficult” for having an opinion and raising concerns and complaints, whereas white British players were able to raise concerns without facing the same consequences. For example, Alex Lees had raised issues with Tim Bresnan and suffered no consequences as a result of his complaint. I highlight this obvious difference in treatment in the text messages between Alex and I (PHB 378-382).
61. During my time at YCCC, Martyn Moxon was Head Coach and then later, Director of Cricket. He is the boss and very powerful within the club. He had himself played for Yorkshire in the 1990s, during the period in which Ismail Dawood and Adil Ditta had played at the club and reported systemic institutional racism. My key concerns about Martyn were:
(i) I faced racist and discriminatory treatment within the club and no action was taken to stop it: All of the incidents that I have described above involving other players making racist comments towards me and treating me unfairly happened on his watch. Many of the incidents even happened in front of him. He did nothing to stop it or take action on it – even after I raised complaints;
(ii) I was discriminated against and denied important professional opportunities within and outside of the club; and
(iii) I was discriminated against and not offered the support I needed and that I saw offered to other players.
62. Coming through as a young player, I did not have much to do with him personally. I first remember Martyn around the time of my debut. Darren Gough was my captain and he wanted me to play three weeks before I ultimately made my debut, but Martyn stopped that. I wasn’t told why and never understood why, I just knew it came from Martyn. As set out above, I had to deal with media backlash after my debut because of the controversy that happened around my passport, Pakistani origin and eligibility. I was only 17 and had journalists coming to my house and accusing me of hiding my Pakistani origin. It was devastating. Martyn was, at that time, Head Coach and my direct line of contact, but he didn’t reach out to me or offer me any help or support.
62. In 2012, I made my breakthrough into the first team so I started to see a lot more of Martyn. During our pre-season tour in 2013, I had a debate with the physio in Barbados. Andrew had shouted at me and given me a massive dressing down in front of everyone in a bar. Again, I was made to be the problem – club management seemed to be completely blind and insensitive to the sociocultural context I faced within the club and how I was treated within this club culture.
63. Throughout my time at the club, I felt that I was discriminated against and faced unnecessarily harsh criticism over my performance and conduct and this was used to deny me important professional opportunities. This was my experience at the time, which has since been confirmed from what I have read in the disclosure material. By way of example:
(a) In 2014, I was released from the Club by Martyn Moxon over a phone call. He indicated to me that this was as a result of my performance. Although I had suffered from YIPS in 2013 (PHB218), this was not a reoccurring problem and Martyn himself had confirmed on 24 April 2014 that “I had got over the YIPS problem” (PHB221). It was during this time in 2012 that I had been drinking, together with Adil Rashid, to try and fit into the Club culture. In retrospect, the constant racist comments and “banter” was affecting my mental state and my performance, But I was not offered support from the club, even though people knew I was struggling. It was in this period I had my first suicidal thoughts – and was one night on the brink of suicide. Even though I had got over the YIPS problem, I was released from the Club. I left the Club disillusioned in 2014.
(b) I returned to the club in 2016, persuaded by Alex Lees and Jason Gillespie, and initially I thrived and performed better than ever before: I was lead wicket taker and helped Yorkshire get to the finals. 2017 should have seen me consolidate that and build on it, progressing my career towards England and the franchise leagues. But throughout 2017 and 2018, I struggled as a result of the bullying, targeting and racism I faced – to the point that, again, I had suicidal thoughts. Despite my disclosure Martyn to about this in August 2017, nothing was done. Soon after, I faced accusations of “faking injuries” and “ruling myself out” of selection by teammates, which meant that senior management (i.e. Martyn and others) were openly discussing my confidential medical records and their assessments of them. I was being left out of training and games. Despite having performed the best I had in my career in the white ball formats, I was being denied the second team red ball games, which – for a capped player – was unheard of. As Director of Cricket, Martyn was responsible for my professional development at the club. I felt very let down by him and felt I was not being provided the same opportunities and support as white British players.
(c) In February 2018, Martyn then held me back from being able to participate in an Ice Cricket tournament. The tournament would have seen me play in televised matches alongside high profile, franchised players, assisting me with visibility to the leagues. It would have involved missing one day of training but Martyn refused to release me. At this point, I really felt that the club – and Martyn - were holding me back from opportunities and on a discriminatory basis: other white players were released for league cricket (for example, David Willy and Liam Plunkett were allowed to miss games to play for the IPL), but I was not offered the same opportunities, even though it meant missing less cricket.
64. By this time in 2018, I became depressed and suicidal. I felt that Martyn and the club were not supporting my career and were actively taking decisions which I felt were discriminatory and were limiting my opportunities. YCCC controlled my career and were not making decisions in my best interests.
65. When I returned to the Club after the bereavement period which was in or around June 2018, on the first day, Martyn Moxon pulled me into a room and started highlighting to me the problems that I had caused by not speaking to the coach (Andrew Gale) and the captain (Steve Patterson). I actually thought that he was asking to speak to me alone to ask how I was and how the family were after the trauma that we had endured, but his only concern was that the coach and captain had complained about me. I tried to explain the situation and how I had been assured I would play which is why I had agreed to go and miss a critical medical appointment with my wife (which was critical in her pregnancy complications) but ended up with twelfth man duties instead. I reiterated that had he not done that and had I known I wasn’t playing, I would have been with my wife at a crucial medical appointment. But Martyn showed me no sympathy and categorically stated that I was a problem (see further below). Martyn’s behaviour confirmed to me that I was never going to get any support from the club no matter what I went through.
66. Throughout 2018, I had tried to continue with my cricket, but was struggling with the stress of what was happening at home. The failure of YCCC and Martyn, as Director of Cricket, to provide me with adequate understanding, pastoral support and care (which I had seen extended to other players during my time at the club, notably Gary Ballance, Johnny Bairstow and others) to assist me through this period made matters worse. I was not given adequate time off, I was pressured to continue playing, there was no understanding or sensitivity – in fact, numerous times the fact I had time off and was affected by my family’s personal tragedy, was held against me and it was made out as if I was exaggerating the extent of the problem (see further below). Martyn’s conduct towards me after my bereavement and loss of my son was the last straw for me.
67. I repeatedly raised my concern with Martyn about the conduct of others at the club and how that was impacting upon me. He never took my concerns or my allegations about institutional racism seriously. In fact, after I was released from the club after making my disclosures to Martyn about racism (see Section E below), Martyn’s family members made public comment on social media, including tweeting that any “insinuation of racism” was “laughable” and “unacceptable” (PHB 533-537). Martyn’s family’s apparent knowledge of my internal complaints of racism could only have come from Martyn sharing with them information about my disclosure to YCCC, which was confidential, and provides a pretty revealing insight into the attitude towards my efforts to raise concern about institutional racism.
Tim Bresnan
55. Tim Bresnan made his debut as a 16 year old in the era of Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan. He was an understudy to Matthew Hoggard. In 2008 / 2009 when I started, Tim was a senior player and had played for England, so had a lot of influence at YCCC and over younger players. In 2016 when I came back to YCCC, he was a senior player who was declining. I noticed that his relationship with Jason Gillespie, our coach at that time, was difficult and I thought his behaviour towards Jason was disrespectful. Jason left the club at the end of 2016 and this is when life at YCCC got worse for me: Andrew became coach, and Gary and Tim were captains.
56. Tim was very powerful at YCCC: he had played for Yorkshire all his life, was captain and had played for England. It also is worth noting that Tim and Andrew Gale are related: Tim is Andrew’s brother in-law. They always supported each other. In my experience, they were a double act: Tim would tag along and join in with Andrew’s racist comments and they bounced off each other in terms of the bullying. As with Andrew, Tim frequently made racist comments and was unduly harsh towards me compared to white British players, which became so unbearable that I made a formal complaint against him in 2017 (see further below).
57. By way of brief overview, these are some examples of the treatment I received from Tim:
(i) Participation in and encouragement of racist comments: Tim would participate with and encourage Gary in the racist comments and jokes that were directed at me (for example, comments like “is that your uncle’s shop?”), laughing along at such remarks. Tim was a senior player who had played for England. I believe that if Tim had pulled Gary up, rather than encouraging him, it would not have continued.
(ii) Unduly harsh criticism of my performance and restricting my professional opportunities: In 2016 when I came back to YCCC, Yorkshire were at the bottom of the T20 league and struggling in one day cricket. However, on my return, Yorkshire made it to the finals and I was the lead wicket taker of the season. Despite this, in 2017-2018:
(a) During warmups in 2017, Tim would come up to me and comment about my bowling and talk down to me, making me feel unwanted in the team. When we started playing in 2017, he stopped giving me opportunities to bowl. Given my performance in 2016, this did not make sense.
(b) During the T20 v Derbyshire on 3 August 2017, I accidentally hit a stump with my leg, a no ball was given and the free hit went for a 6. It was a freak, one-off accident. At the end of the game, Tim singled me out in the dressing room, shouting abuse in front of my teammates, claiming that I had caused us to lose the game. Of course, that wasn’t true: many factors that day had contributed to the loss, but I was blamed. I went home in tears (and later made a complaint - see below). By way of comparison, in the game before (against Lancashire on 15 July 2017), Adam Lyth made an error by running down the pitch getting caught when we were ahead on Duckworth Lewis and were about to come off the field at any moment because of rain, which literally cost us the game. In the dressing room, Tim and Andrew praised and encouraged Adam. There is a clear difference: Adam’s error had cost us the win, my one-off freak accident had not. In any event, any number of things during any game contribute to the outcome. And yet, I was singled out and abused. It was this kind of obvious differential treatment between how white British players were treated and how I was treated (and the other Pakistani players, like Adil and Rana) that I noticed was a pattern.
(iii) Belittling comments: Aside from belittling comments about my performance, Tim made comments that showed that no matter what I did, I was not valued. For example, in the winter of 2017, I was extremely excited to have been given the opportunity to travel to play in Hong Kong with a number of high-profile players, and where Brian Lara would be my mentor. A teammate commented on this, saying how great it was but Tim responded with disdain and said in front of everyone, “it’s nothing, anyone can get a gig there (Hong Kong) it’s nothing”.
58. In light of Tim’s behaviour, I made numerous attempts to raise my concern:
(i) In 2017, prior to the T20 Durham match at Riverside on 4 August 2017, I went to Richard Pyrah (Assistant Coach) and told him how uncomfortable Tim was making me feel with his constant digs. Richard dismissed it and simply said “oh, you know what Bres is like, just try to ignore him”. (Richard, Tim and Andrew were drinking buddies so I didn’t have much hope that my complaint would come to anything).
(ii) I also took my concerns to my agent, Will Quinn, telling him he had to get me out of YCCC because of how Tim was treating me, to the point it was causing me to have suicidal thoughts, so I needed to get out. Will took my disclosure to Martyn Moxon (see my text messages with Will Quinn: PHB 364; 370-374). Martyn Moxon and Andrew Gale then spoke to me at Scarborough (6 August 2017) and I told them I felt isolated, that I was being picked on compared to people in similar situations who were not singled out like I was and I described the incidents outlined above. Martyn and Andrew admitted that Tim had issues and that they would be speaking to him about how he had treated me.
59. After the disclosure to Martyn Moxon, Tim later apologised to me, but it was lip service and didn’t change anything. In fact, after my disclosure it got even worse for me – I was getting left out of training and games and I believe my disclosure caused more problems for me and led to further targeting and bullying.
60. I note here that I was being treated as a problem and considered to be “difficult” for having an opinion and raising concerns and complaints, whereas white British players were able to raise concerns without facing the same consequences. For example, Alex Lees had raised issues with Tim Bresnan and suffered no consequences as a result of his complaint. I highlight this obvious difference in treatment in the text messages between Alex and I (PHB 378-382).
RossTaylorsBox
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Literally laughing at jokes an 8 year old comes up with.
RossTaylorsBox
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Well he did get called the z word.
duffer
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
8 year olds have more wit than that
RossTaylorsBox
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
me, pointing to a guy puffing on a packet of Rothmans: does your dad own these?
Burgey
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Almost dire enough to be an Australian tabloid headline
Burgey
Request Your Custom Title Now!
I mean, CW genuinely should have got the scoop here. Uppercut has questions to answer.
Teja.
Global Moderator
Imagine a horror world where you are made to feel guilty and slacking for trying to take time off when you hear your unborn son is losing his heartbeat. So dire.
I also think that the established players around ****s like Ballance as well as friends of his have to take responsibility for not standing up against this behaviour. Clearly Ballance was engaged in some viciously racist (and not at all subtle) bullying. you'd have hoped that someone like Root (who was Ballance's room mate/best friend) would at least acknowledge it now even if he did not stand up against it when it happened like he should have.
I don't think any action should be taken against it but it's a bit disappointing from Root.
I also think that the established players around ****s like Ballance as well as friends of his have to take responsibility for not standing up against this behaviour. Clearly Ballance was engaged in some viciously racist (and not at all subtle) bullying. you'd have hoped that someone like Root (who was Ballance's room mate/best friend) would at least acknowledge it now even if he did not stand up against it when it happened like he should have.
I don't think any action should be taken against it but it's a bit disappointing from Root.
Last edited:
I'm sure Root would say he was playing got England during the worst of the racist bullying and therefore never witnessed it (and presumably lived under a rock as I can't believe he'd have no idea what was happening at his county). But he certainly would've been around during what happened about ten years ago before his England call ups. I like Root but he seemed a cheeky, ****y little git in his youth and could see him in the shadow of more assertive and arrogant teammates, not doing anything malicious but turning a blind eye at least. I've said before he seems a pretty needy captain and likes to have his pals around. His beef with Shannon Gabriel, whilst genuine, feels a little performative now and I'm sure Root would claim that demonstrates he's not prejudiced. Although one can easily be racist and believe in ***ual orientation equality.
duffer
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Root was basically a ring in for them. How he would know this stuff?
Red_Ink_Squid
Cricketer Of The Year
The section of the report on sledger's behaviour is a pretty shocking read.
Red_Ink_Squid
Cricketer Of The Year
But seriously, what a bleak tale. Gayle's unpleasantness has been known for some time, but Ballance and Bresnan are two players I'd always liked. There's no defence or excuse for the kind of behaviour depicted here. No one should have to put up with anything like that level of bullying.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Given how much time England players spend with the England side I can actually believe that would be the case.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
It is very bleak stuff to read on a very bleak day. 
StephenZA
Hall of Fame Member
What level of bullying is acceptable? Not trying to be difficult but this is half the problem. The acceptance that some of this stuff is just 'boys being boys' or the classic, 'it was not serious it was just a bit of fun everybody does it.'
One of the uncomfortable truths is that much of this behaviour is seen by all of us, all the time, to a greater or lesser extent; and nobody did or does anything about it, even if it made us personally uncomfortable. And the action I generally see is either that of people nodding along in concern and then ignoring it. Or the other common reaction when people are called out of 'I don't really do that, or mean it that way, I`m actually a nice guy' combined with 'its all blown out of proportion and people need to not take offence so easily'.
In the end entire population groups, generations of people, even on a small scale-groups of friends, are being told that their behaviour is not acceptable and they are not the wonderful, good people they thought they were. Nobody wants to hear that, and will fight against changing at all costs; leading to long winded explanations, social discourse, and straw man arguments to explain away all levels of poor behaviour. We see it with ***ism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia... pick your -ism/phobia. This is the basic level of human discourse on any of these subjects.