David Lloyd tenders his apology to Azeem Rafiq after being accused of racism

Former England cricketer and current commentator David Lloyd was accused of racism by Azeem Rafiq. And now, Lloyd has released a statement wherein he has stated that he regrets his actions and has even tendered his apology to Rafiq.

Rafiq alleged that Lloyd told ‘getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone’. Rafiq also said that he does not even know Lloyd personally and the commentator was talking about his personal stuff. Rafiq even said that he was disturbed by the fact that Sky Sports is doing a wonderful job in exposing racism and Lloyd had done this.

“High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like ‘the club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there’, ‘getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone. And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.

That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it,” said Rafiq according to Sky Sports.

David Lloyd tenders his apology

On his part, David Lloyd has offered his apology for the comments he made about the Asian Cricket Community. Adding that he wants to make cricket an inclusive sport, Lloyd also stated that more work needs to be done to remove discrimination from sport. The 74-year-old also added that cricket has been his life for over 50 years.

The racism allegation from Azeem Rafiq even received a response from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson who tweeted that he wants the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to take action regarding this issue.

You can see the tweet from David Lloyd below

pic.twitter.com/JywVcdGFPu

— David 'Bumble' Lloyd (@BumbleCricket) November 16, 2021