Regan holds up hands over Rafiq

3:17pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

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Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan has shouldered the blame for the Azeem Rafiq saga which is threatening the club’s participation in the Twenty20 Cup.

The White Rose county’s quarter-final tie against Durham at the Riverside yesterday was called off because it was revealed that 17-year-old off-spinner Rafiq had not been eligible to make his debut in the final North Division game against Nottinghamshire on June 27.

Thousands of fans were gathered at the Chester-le-Street venue expecting some sort of clash despite the rain but they were only informed as to the enormity of the situation eight minutes after the scheduled 17.10pm start.

The club will face an ECB disciplinary panel on Thursday to find out their punishment, which could be as harsh as being expelled from the 20-over tournament.

They could also be forced to replay the game against Nottinghamshire, despite a busy schedule which sees only four possible dates for that fixture and a subsequent quarter-final before finals day on July 26.

“Ultimately the buck stops with me; I am responsible for running this club,” said Regan after realising that Rafiq had not signed the relevant paperwork as well as not having a British passport following his arrival in England from Pakistan in 2001.

“I guess the members of our club and the press will want to find a scapegoat to blame for all of this but I will not be offering my resignation.

“What I would like to do is put the matter right, making sure that processes are put in place so that this doesn’t happen again.

“This is an administrative matter which has been discussed at length with the ECB. Ultimately we would have liked to have come to a conclusion with them to allow the match to have been called off before it was.

“We provided the ECB with facts over the weekend and unfortunately they were not able to get them cleared with their lawyers before the middle of Monday afternoon. That was why the match was called off as late as it was.”

The ECB were willing to backdate the initial registration form for Yorkshire Academy star Rafiq, a matter which was raised as early as Friday.

But the match had to be called off when it was revealed that he did not have a British passport, only a Pakistani one.

The lack of a passport has not stopped the Barnsley youngster captaining England under-15s and under-16s, however it does prevent him from playing first-team cricket.

Durham today released a statement saying that they “were hugely concerned with what had gone on”.

The north-east club insisted: “We should be allowed to proceed to finals day without having to replay in what is already a very busy schedule.”