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Former England cricketer Matthew Hoggard says his life was “ruined” by the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal.
The 2005 Ashes winner was found guilty by an England and Wales Cricket Board commission in 2023 of three charges of using racist and/or discriminatory language and was fined £4,000 and banned from cricket, following Rafiq’s allegations concerning his time at Yorkshire.
Away from cricket, Hoggard was beginning to build a career in cooking but said his business also took a hit after he was “cancelled massively”.
In an interview with The Telegraph, he said: “It ruined me and my family for a year, maybe longer.
“We had so many deals lined up – as soon as that hit the fan, then it was ‘no, no we can’t work with you,’ and I got cancelled massively.
“I didn’t want to leave the house. Gradually I came out, because people said to me behind closed doors they didn’t believe a word of it but they couldn’t say that in public.”
Hoggard also said the Rafiq claims made his wife, Sarah, feel suicidal.
“I knew how the defibrillator worked in the village, and where it was,” he said. “I knew what pills she had in case I came downstairs and she wasn’t… Yeah, it was horrible, absolutely horrible.”
Rafiq’s complaints concerned his second stint at the club – after Hoggard had left – but he also alleged Hoggard was part of a ‘racist’ dressing room culture in his first stint.
Hoggard admitted some things were said in the dressing room at the time but added: “The way the ECB handled it, I thought was absolutely disgusting. Looking back on that changing room, there was nothing wrong with it.
“I was put under a bit of pressure from the PCA (Professional Cricketers’ Association) and the ECB to issue an apology. I went ‘No’, because if I apologise, I admit that what happened in the changing room was wrong. I was adamant that what happened in that changing room wasn’t bullying.”
