Amid Yorkshire row, Jack Brooks apologises to Pujara

SOMERSET pacer Jack Brooks on Thursday (18) apologised to India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara for his role in nicknaming the Test specialist “Steve” during his stints at Yorkshire, the century-old English county which has found itself caught in a massive racism row.

Brooks, who joined Somerset in 2018, also issued an apology for his racist tweets posted in 2012 as the controversy surrounding Pakistan-born cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of institutional racism against Yorkshire continued to steal the headlines for wrong reasons.

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Jack Brooks (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

The surfacing of two examples of Brooks using alleged racist words in exchanges with England fast bowler Tymal Mills and batter Stewart Laudat, who played minor county cricket for Oxfordshire, led to Somerset probing the allegations.

“With reference to my naming in Azeem Rafiq’s statement to MPs this week, the use of the name “Steve” related to some people having difficult names to pronounce. When this has occurred in the past in a dressing room environment, it has been commonplace to give nicknames, regardless of creed or race,” Brooks said in a statement that appeared on the Somerset club’s website.

“I admit to having used it in this context and now accept that it was disrespectful and wrong to do so. I have reached out and apologised to Cheteshwar for any offence that I have caused him or his family. At the time I didn’t recognise this as racist behaviour, but I can now see that it was not acceptable,” he added.

Earlier in the week, Brooks’ name featured in Rafiq’s testimony in front of the UK government’s department for digital, culture, media and sport select committee.

Rafiq said that Brooks had started the practice at Yorkshire of referring to Pujara as “Steve”, rather than use his given name.

Pujara had county cricket stints at Yorkshire in 2015 and 2018.