EX-England star Monty Panesar slammed the use of racist terms towards Azeem Rafiq being defined as ‘banter’.
And the former Test spin bowler accused cricket bosses of ‘completely mishandling’ the racism allegations.
Rafiq, 30, was found to have been a victim of ‘racial harassment and bullying’ by Yorkshire.
The Pakistan-born bowler spent a decade at Yorkshire between 2008 and 2018 before making the allegations late last year.
Yorkshire announced that they would not be releasing their report publicly and that no further action would be taken.
This week, former England batsman Gary Ballance admitted to using a ‘racial slur’ against Rafiq.
And now Panesar, who played 50 Test matches for England, thinks Yorkshire didn’t take Rafiq’s allegations seriously.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, he said: “I think they’ve completely mishandled this case.
“They haven’t taken serious concern for Azeem Rafiq and his welfare.
“They’ve kind of termed it as banter which sits uncomfortably with me.
“The P word is a racist term and should not be defined under the banter bracket.”
It was only on Monday of this week that the full nature of the slurs was revealed.
Rafiq is scheduled to give evidence to MPs in person on November 16 as part of a probe into his allegations.
Panesar, 39, added: “Yorkshire felt that Azeem’s allegations weren’t important to them.
“They kind of avoided the issues and also delayed the report.
“This statement from Gary Ballance should’ve been released in August when the ECB wanted that report.”
Fuming Health Secretary Sajid Javid said ‘heads should roll’ after it emerged a Yorkshire panel determined the repeated use of the word ‘P**i’ against spinner Rafiq was ‘banter’.
