“I deeply regret my actions”: David Lloyd apologize to Azeem Rafiq and the Asian cricket community over racism

Rishikesh Sharma | 17/11/2021
"I deeply regret my actions": David Lloyd apologize to Azeem Rafiq and the Asian cricket community over racism

English commentator David Lloyd has apologized to Azeem Rafiq and the Asian cricket community for the racial remarks.

Azeem Rafiq’s racism case is gaining the world’s eyebrows now. Rafeeq was speaking at the parliamentary hearing in Westminster, and he revealed a lot of instances of the past. He also accused the media persons and commentators of engaging in denials, cover-ups, and mocking of the racial incidents.

“It’s clear the problem is there,” Rafiq said.

“I think it’s been an open secret. As I’ve seen over the last 15 months, if you speak out your life is going to be made hell – and there’s no doubt my life.”

“High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, ‘The clubhouses are the lifeblood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there, ‘Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone’.”

Azeem Rafiq also particularly named David Lloyd aka Bumble in one of his statements.

“That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and 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.

“And I thought, ‘Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it’.”

David Lloyd issues an apology to Azeem Rafiq

Former English coach and current commentator, David Lloyd has issued an apology to Azeem Rafiq and the Asian cricket community. The 74-years old has acknowledged that he made an error of judgment in making generalizations.

“In October 2020, I had a private message exchange with a third party involved in cricket, about a number of topics,” Lloyd wrote.

“In these messages, I referred to allegations about Azeem Rafiq which I had heard from within the game. Also made some comments about the Asian cricket community.”
“I deeply regret my actions, and I apologize most sincerely to Azeem and to the Asian cricket community for doing this.”
“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 years.”
Post Edited By: Rishikesh Sharma
Azeem Rafiq David Lloyd

About the author

Rishikesh Sharma

An engineering graduate and an ardent sports fan, Rishikesh Sharma is covering cricket for three years now after not making peace with a corporate life and has written more than 5000 articles. While Sourav Ganguly made him fall in love with the sport, Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir enhanced it. Apart from cricket, Rishikesh is a huge fan of Liverpool FC. When not watching sports, you will find him riding around Jaipur.

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