'No runs or wickets could have done what you did': Azeem Rafiq speaks of family's pride

ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott sits down with Azeem Rafiq and discusses yesterdays revelations

Azeem Rafiq slept well last night. Giving dramatic and, at times, harrowing evidence to MPs on Tuesday lifted a huge weight off his shoulders.

It also exposed a sport that had not only deserted him but had attempted to cover up the racism that led him to the verge of suicide.

It was a shameful day for cricket; a sport that is very quick to say it welcomes everybody when we know now the truth paints a very different and very ugly picture.

Rafiq hopes his bravery will be a watershed moment and change will follow.

If it does, it would mean his torment will be the basis of a legacy for future generations and something his family, who have put up with so much pain in the past couple of years, can be proud of.

Rafiq told me his father was overwhelmed by the way he conducted himself yesterday and also that he saw his wife smile for the first time in a very long time.

'My dad said to me no runs or wickets could have done what you done'

When he speaks about his family, it is the only time he loses composure – he knows what they have been through and it hurts him.

He revealed how, just this week, someone came into his shop and accused him of having a bomb.

"In my shop only a couple of nights ago, someone walked in and said that I had a bomb, we should all run," he said.

"It's been horrible, and it just shows why people are so fearful of coming forward," he said, speaking about the abuse he and his family have endured.

'Someone walked in and said that I had a bomb': Azeem talks about racial abuse he received in his own shop just this week

Rafiq called on Yorkshire’s leadership team to resign recently, concluding there was no way the club could move forward with the same people in charge.

But what of those who run the game, the England and Wales Cricket board, surely the same applies?

How can they be trusted to reform, given their reluctance to act in Rafiq’s case, until it was clear his story wasn’t going away?

Rafiq’s instinct is generous given his experience, it is to give them a chance to prove themselves, but he says he’ll be watching their every action.

'I think it's a cosy game controlled by middle-aged white men'

And then what of those who handed out the daily abuse, overt or subtle?

He says there should be repercussions for all of them but believes anyone who apologises deserves a second chance. Those still in denial though he has far less time for.

He says he’d love to see the day when, after school on their way home, kids from Yorkshire’s Asian community in Yorkshire rushed to Headingley to watch the tail end of a day’s cricket.

That, he says, would be a sign that everything he’d been through had been worth it.

Watch Azeem Rafiq's interview with ITV News in full