AZEEM RAFIQ has criticised the prospective return of Colin Graves as Yorkshire chair and called on the club’s sponsors to “find their moral compass” and walk away if his reappointment is confirmed.

Graves, 75, is understood to be in exclusive dialogue with the county over a return, despite previously presiding over part of a period in which the club admitted an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) charge of failing to address the systemic use of racist or discriminatory language.

Graves also sparked controversy when he equated allegations of racism, which he claimed were never raised to him during his three-year period in charge, to “banter.”

Writing in the Observer, Rafiq said Graves’s likely reappointment “exposes a failing game” and proved that “nothing has changed. All we have had are empty words and broken promises.”

Rafiq called for direct action to pressure the move, insisting: “Sponsors found their moral compass before, and they need to find it again, because any organisation supporting this is complicit in it.

“There is still time for them to act, to leave now and stop Yorkshire stepping back in time and undoing what progress they have made in the past three years.”

Last week Clive Efford, a member of the culture, media and sport committee, told the PA news agency that Grave’s return would be “a disaster for cricket.”

Efford, who was part of the group that heard Rafiq’s harrowing testimony in November 2021 of the racism he experienced, said: “It’s a retrograde step and a disaster for cricket if the ECB allow it to happen.

“I supported Yorkshire not being stripped of the Ashes Test match on the basis that they had taken major steps and seemed determined to move forward, but clearly I was mistaken.”