Yorkshire appoints Bradford Lord as new chair as Azeem Rafiq racism row continues

Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford has been appointed as a director and chair of the Club in the wake of Azeem Rafiq's allegations.

It follows Roger Hutton's resignation on Friday morning.

The club said that Hanif Malik and Stephen Willis had also left the board, with Neil Hartley to follow once Lord Patel's transition to chair had ended.

"It is resolved to do whatever it takes to regain the trust of all its stakeholder inside and outside the game," a statement from Yorkshire said.

Speaking of his new role, Lord Patel said:

He added: "Yorkshire is lucky to have a vast talent pool of cricketers, and passionate supporters, from all of our communities and we must re-engage with everyone to make a better Yorkshire County Cricket Club for everyone."

It comes as Yorkshire was stripped of hosting international and major fixes, with the ECB saying the Club's "handling of the issues raised by Azeem Rafiq is wholly unacceptable and is causing serious damage to the reputation of the game".

Hutton had been called to appear in front of the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee and has said he will still appear, despite resigning.

Hutton also said he "immediately reached out" to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after he had been made aware of Rafiq's allegations, adding: "I was saddened when they declined to help."

The ECB responded saying: ‘’Yorkshire CCC did reach out to us at the beginning of the investigation with a request that we partner with them on exploring Azeem's allegations of racism and bullying against the club."

It said its role is to operate independently of club investigations as a regulator, adding: ‘’The reason why our governance is structured in this manner, is perfectly demonstrated in the way that these issues have played-out at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.’’