Threats made to Azeem Rafiq have included a customer in the Yorkshire racism whistleblower’s Barnsley fish and chip shop saying ‘they were going to detonate a BOMB’
- Azeem Rafiq gave evidence in parliament over experiences of racism in cricket
- It has since claimed that he was threatened at a chip shop he owns last Friday
- South Yorkshire Police are investigating a bomb threat allegedly made to Rafiq
- A customer is alleged to have abused Rafiq and threatened to set a bomb off
A furious visitor to Azeem Rafiq’s fish and chip shop in Barnsley reportedly threatened to set off a bomb to blow the place up.
The former Yorkshire all-rounder has been the whistleblower on English cricket’s problems with racism and Rafiq gave evidence to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
George Dobell, the journalist who worked with Rafiq to originally publish his claims of racism, said: ‘He had one on Friday when someone came into his fish and chip shop and said they were going to detonate a bomb.
‘He’s put up with a lot but he’s prevailed.’
Azeem Rafiq reportedly faced a bomb threat from a customer at his fish and chip shop in Barnsley last week, prior to giving evidence to a parliamentary committee on racism in cricket
The report goes on to add that Rafiq was abused ‘face to face’ by the individual accused of making a bomb threat.
South Yorkshire Police are said to have launched an investigation with the Sheffield Star revealing that threats were made at the shop close to 6pm.
In a statement carried by the Sheffield Star, South Yorkshire Police’s Barnsley district acting chief inspector, Rebecca Richardson, said: ‘We take all allegations of this nature very seriously and are working to identify the offender in this case, which is being treated as racially aggravated public order.
‘If anybody saw or heard anything that might help with this investigation please get in touch.’
Rafiq, 30, laid bare the harrowing abuse and bullying he claims he suffered while playing at Yorkshire
Rafiq addressed MPs on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Tuesday.
In his evidence he claimed that Asian players at Yorkshire County Cricket Club were told to ‘sit by the toilets’, called ‘P**is’ and ‘elephant washers’.
Rafiq’s allegations of institutionalised racism have completely rocked the sport.
He now believes the floodgates have opened on cricket’s racism scandal and that thousands of victims will follow his lead in sharing their experiences of discrimination.
More than 1,000 people have already responded to a call for evidence, with the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket inundated with complaints to their new reporting system from those who have been subjected to prejudice.
‘It’s going to get into the hundreds and thousands,’ said Rafiq, as cricket began coming to terms with the fall-out from the former Yorkshire off-spinner’s powerful testimony before MPs at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing.
‘I do feel it’s going to be a little bit of ‘floodgates’ and a lot of victims of abuse are going to come forward,’ he added.
Yorkshire have already opened a whistleblowing hotline and Essex, the second county hit by serious allegations of racist behaviour by players, a coach and their former chairman John Faragher, are set to follow suit.
Anyone with information about the reported chip shop incident should call South Yorkshire Police on 101 and quote incident number 762 of November 12.