A sombre mood has descended over Yorkshire. 

At Headingley, the home of Yorkshire cricket, dismal groundskeepers are pulling down banners advertising Anchor ButterAnchor Butter and Yorkshire Tea are among sponsors who have ended their ties with Yorkshire County Cricket Club.  and Yorkshire Tea. Soon, top officials will head to London to face a grilling in the British parliament. "Heads should roll," declared one senior government minister.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club's critics say their downfall has come not a moment too soon. In September 2020, former player Azeem Rafiq told reporters that racism and bullying at the sporting institution had left him close to taking his own life. 

Now, leaked details from a report on the allegations show club bosses dismissed racist slurs as "friendly and good-natured banter". A year on, they have still not released the full report. 

"This is one of the most repellent and disturbing episodes in modern cricket history", said top MPMember of Parliament. There are 650 MPs representing people in different areas of the UK. Julian Knight.

For Rafiq, Yorkshire's "abjectExtreme and without hope.  failures" are just one part of a long and exhausting search for justice. "No one believed me, no one listened, everyone tried to protect themselves and left me all alone." 

"The sport I love and my club desperately need reform and social change." 

Critics say the events in Yorkshire did not occur in a vacuum. "The abuse faced by Azeem Rafiq took place in a game that is getting whiter and more out of touch with modern Britain," wrote journalist Mihir Bose yesterday. 

People of south Asian heritage account for 4% of English professional players, despite making up a third of recreational cricketers. The number of Black county cricketA domestic cricket championship in England and Wales. Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th Century.  players has dropped by 75% since 1990. 

And it is not just cricket that is facing the heat. In the USA, where fans spend an incredible $100bn (£74bn) on sports every year, a powerful new Netflix docudrama is raising uncomfortable questions about how racism stifles sporting achievement. 

American footballer Colin KaepernickAmerican football player who protested against police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. His actions sparked a nationwide movement, however, he was dropped by his team, the San Francisco 49ers. made headlines when he took a knee during the US national anthem to protest racism. He received both admiration and vile abuse. 

In Colin in Black and White, Kaepernick tells the story of his teenage years, recalling the coaches who promoted white players ahead of him.

"The game that Black sportspeople have to play isn't football, or baseball, or basketball, but finding a way to survive and thrive when the rules are rigged against you," summarises one reviewer. 

Many believe that despite renewed focus, racism in sport worldwide is actually getting worse, not better.

"We've definitely made progress," says Sanjay Bhandari, head of anti-discrimination campaign Kick It Out. 

"Racism is not the endemicCommon to a particular place or community. thing it was in the 1970s. But it's worse than it was five years ago." Indeed, the 2019/2020 professional football season saw a 42% rise in reports of discrimination.

"Our challenge is we've got to avoid the complacency of not going back to what it was in the 70s and 80s and thinking that 'Don't worry, we never can do that' - we could." 

Yes, say some. From the terrible social media abuse of Black footballers after the Euro 2020 tournament to the alleged cover-up in Yorkshire, 2021 has been a year of reckoning for the sporting world. It is impossible to ignore the discrimination ethnic minority sportspeople face all around the world today. 

No, say others. The treatment of Azeem Rafiq is an ugly stain on English cricket, but we should not draw conclusions about sport in general. Racism is undoubtedly still a problem, but there has been a huge amount of progress in recent years. Racist attitudes are in decline, not growing.