Essex fined after pleading guilty to charges related to racist comment

The club pleads guilty to two charges in relation to a racist comment made at a board meeting in 2017.

CHELMSFORD, ENGLAND - APRIL 08: An Essex County cricket sign prior to Day Two the LV= Insurance County Championship match between Essex and Kent at Cloudfm County Ground on April 08, 2022 in Chelmsford, England. (Photo by Jacques Feeney/Getty Images)

Essex has been fined GBP 50,000 (USD 61,835) by an independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel after the English county club pleaded guilty to two charges in relation to a racist comment made at a board meeting in 2017.

Essex chairman John Faragher resigned from his role in November 2021 after the allegation that he used racist language, although he strongly denied the incident.

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The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which announced the decision on Thursday, said Essex had also been cautioned about further conduct and issued with a reprimand. It added that GBP 15,000 of the fine was suspended for two years.

"The charge was in two parts - relating to the comment made at the meeting, and the subsequent failure by Essex CCC to conduct an appropriate, or any, subsequent investigation," a statement by the ECB said.

Faragher's decision to quit Essex came a day after fellow county side Yorkshire's former chief executive Mark Arthur resigned in the fallout from the allegations of institutional racism made by its former player Azeem Rafiq.