Players Urinated On My Head: Former Yorkshire Academy Player Alleges Racism

Bhatti alleged that racist comments were fairly regular in his time at Yorkshire.

Yorkshire chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel. 

Image: Yorkshire/Twitter

Tabassum Bhatti, a former Yorkshire academy player has recently spoken out about facing racism from teammates as a 14-year-old. Bhatti had signed for Yorkshire at the age of 14 in 1998.

Bhatti told BBC Sport that players urinated on his head, desecrated another Muslim player's prayer mat and used racist language aimed at his Pakistani heritage.

"Something needs to be done. Enough is enough," he said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the club's new chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel said: "We need to listen to anyone who has experienced racism, discrimination and abuse at this cricket club, and I urge others to come forward to share their experiences.

"We are aware that, since I spoke yesterday, a number of allegations have been made from individuals about their experiences in the media. These need to be properly investigated.

"We want anyone who may have suffered issues to come forward, and these will be considered carefully and with due diligence.”

According to the BBC report, Bhatti said that comments were fairly regular during his time at the club.

Bhatti also added that the specific racial slur targeted towards his Pakistani heritage was not said to his face but he "could hear players talking about me, talking about a black fellow player as well".

Bhatti spoke about an alleged incident at a hotel, "I was in my room just minding my own business. I was on the phone to somebody leaning out of the hotel bedroom window and there were players in the hotel room above who decided to urinate on my head.

"I actually dropped the phone out of my hand and dropped down two or three storeys and they did then go and try and find the phone but, yeah they urinated on my head from their window above."

Bhatti says he knew who the players were as they visited his room afterwards, adding: "I did mention it to the coach at the time he said 'no look, don't worry about it, I'll deal with it' - obviously not."

The 37-year-old says he also heard "conversations between players about desecrating another Muslim player's prayer mat," adding: "This was like a joke to them."

(With BBC inputs)