After a four-year-old allegation, the chairman of Essex County Cricket Club resigned.
John Faragher strongly denied the incident and resigned as chairman of the Essex board on Thursday night.
The first-class county cricket club are intent on reviewing why the incident was not fully and independently investigated at the time.
It comes after Yorkshire’s former chair Roger Hutton and chief executive Mark Arthur both resigned in recent days following former player Azeem Rafiq’s claims of institutional racism at Headingley.
Essex released a statement saying it does not tolerate discrimination and that it will consider any additional steps necessary for the Club.
John Faragher, (pictured March 2019, Essex County Cricket Club Chairman) has resigned following a history of racism at an Essex County Cricket Club board meeting in 2017.
John Stephenson, the new chief executive of the club, addressed the racism allegations against Faragher. He has chaired Essex since 2016.
He said, “This club is proud to have a zero tolerance policy for racism and discrimination. As Essex Cricket’s chief executive officer, it will not be difficult to enforce those principles and eliminate any forms of discrimination.
Mr Stephenson, who only took over the day-to-day running of Essex in October, said he first found out about the alleged incident said to involve Faragher this week.
He stated: ‘I was informed of this one allegation on Thursday. I had joined the club only four weeks before. Last night was the last meeting of the board. [Thursday]The board unanimously approved John Faragher’s resignation.
‘We are committed to working with the England & Wales Cricket Board to eradicate discrimination from the game.
“This is a significant first step. But the club needs to take further action. To ensure matters like this get dealt with promptly and appropriately, we will review our internal reporting systems. The next steps I plan to take will be made public as soon and as quickly as possible.
After a first complaint to the Cricket Board, the England and Wales Cricket Board opened an investigation.
A spokesperson from the ECB said that racism and discrimination are not allowed in this game.
“The England and Wales Cricket Board launched an investigation into the Essex County Cricket Club following receiving allegations involving John Faragher. Faragher resigned from his position as club chairman. This allegation has been taken very seriously by the ECB.