Gary Ballance comes forward admitting he hurled 'racial slur' against Azeem Rafiq

Days after reports hiding the name of the Yorkshire player who hurled racist slurs such as “P**i” on his teammate Azim Rafiq, Garry Ballance has come forward to admit that he was the one who was the culprit although maintaining that he had no intentions to offending and instead unaware of the impact it was having on the leg spinner’s feelings.

Ballance has regretted his language to Rafiq in his “younger years” at the Yorkshire county and said that he is saddened to see the situation come to this point having an “incredibly close relationship” with him.

He said that the words that have now emerged as “racial slurs” were used by him with Rafiq in private conversations and that a lot of words can be deemed “inappropriate” if used out of context. He said that Rafiq and he shared a special relationship where they sued to spend time together going out and drinking together and he was absolutely unaware of Rafiq being in “distress” over his words. He also hunted that Rafiq too has said a few things in those conversations but he is not revealing those to not discredit Rafiq’s words.

“To be clear – I deeply regret some of the language I used in my younger years. The independent enquiry, having heard all of the evidence, accepted that the context of some of the language used was in a ‘friendly verbal attack’ between friends which was not intended to offend or hurt and that no malice was intended. Given my incredibly close relationship with Rafa over the years I am saddened that it has come to this,” Ballance said in a statement.

“Because we were such good friends and spent a lot of time together drinking and on nights out we both said things privately to each other which were not acceptable. 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. 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.”

Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of “institutional racism” has raked a massive controversy in the England cricket circles and the Yorkshire County Cricket Club too has concluded that he was “offended, degraded or humiliated and that this amounted to harassment under the Equality Act and the Club's Equal Opportunities policy".