Jahid Ahmed, a former professional cricketer, has admitted to MPs that he doubts the sport’s players are concerned about the alleged racist harassment he claims to have experienced. Ahmed testified before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee on Tuesday that some of his teammates at Essex frequently mocked him for his ethnicity.
“You could hear the other guys were laughing with them which made me feel very, very obviously upset about so many things,” he said. “They were asking me things like: “Would you bomb the club”. That was in front of everyone.”
In addition, the former bowler asserted that one of the players who had harassed him was still under contract with the team. “There is a current player still playing who’s racially abused me, who’s racially slurred me, used a lot of things to bully me throughout my whole career and they’re still going,” he told the committee. “I don’t know what action they will take against that person. It’s not just a small person, he’s a big fish.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, Ahmed, who was joined by former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq, claimed that he tried to bring up the abuse with other Asian players at the time but was told to keep quiet.
“They used to call me ‘curry muncher’ for example, and I wasn’t sure what that meant. And I used to approach them (the Asian players) and ask them what does that mean? Why did they call us that? The advice I got was just ignore it, just concentrate on your game and don’t worry about that,” he said.
Formal proceedings under process: Essex County Cricket Club
In order to guarantee those who claimed they were abused “could be heard within a formal process,” Essex County Cricket Club hired an impartial barrister to conduct an investigation when the allegations first surfaced in 2021. The report hasn’t been released a year later, but the club did say in a statement to ITV News Anglia on Tuesday that it “is close to completion.”
On the delayed investigation, Ahmed said: “It’s taken longer than what they promised. When I reached out to find out when the report would get released, I was told it was in September. I’m a victim, I just don’t feel like I get any support from anyone at the moment. It just shows that, whether they care, I don’t know.”
A representative for Essex County Cricket Club responded to Ahmed’s testimony by stating that the organisation is still dedicated to eliminating discrimination. “We informed the Chair and the members of the DCMS Select Committee, as well as Mr Ahmed, of the status of the independent investigation into these historical accusations of racism,” a statement read.
“The club is determined to demonstrate zero tolerance to discrimination of any sort and the highest standards of good governance.
“As the investigation is close to completion and it is the club’s intention – through a commitment to transparency – that the report will be published to its fullest extent possible, it would therefore be inappropriate to prejudge any of its findings or make any further comment.”
