Yorkshire Racism Row: Director Ashley Giles suggests 'second chance' for people involved

[caption id=“attachment_8781971” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of Azeem Rafiq. Twitter @ECB_cricket[/caption] London: England managing director Ashley Giles on Sunday advocated the need to give a second chance to those involved in racism incidents in the past, saying zero tolerance does not mean “cutting off people” and denying them rehabilitation. The English cricket found itself embroiled in a racism row after Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq alleged that he was taunted for his Asian origin by his colleagues in his playing days. Former England captain Michael Vaughan’s name also emerged in the scandal and he apologised to Rafiq for the “hurt” but denied using racist language. As a fallout of the allegations, Vaughan was taken off the BBC commentary team for the upcoming Ashes series but Giles suggested giving a second chance to those involved in the racism row. “For me if zero tolerance means we cut people off, we don’t give second chances, we don’t give people a chance to rehabilitate then I think we’ve got a problem,” Giles told British reporters. “We all do make mistakes and we will again, but we have to be able to tolerate and educate and rehabilitate, otherwise people aren’t going to open up, they’re not going to share their experiences.” Giles said the present times need an environment where people can come forward and share their experiences. “I’ve been involved in the game over the last 30 years and I’m sure there will be incidents and things I’ve said that I wouldn’t be proud of in a different time and a different context,” he said. “I’m sure cricket’s not alone in those experiences but it’s clear we need to keep creating environments where people can keep coming forward and sharing those experiences and we can talk about these issues. And to do that we need to educate, we need to share and I also think we need to tolerate.”