26-04-2025
Shamed cricketer John Blain fighting to clear name after racism storm
'My old dear said to me, 'I hope you find justice in my lifetime son…' Blain tells Herald Sport.
'That's a big thing to hear from your 78-year-old mum.
'My dad was a proud man, a policeman. And it's so hard for them because, while you try to keep your family away from it as much as possible, they are affected. It's their image around the town and so on.
'My dad used to come to every game and liked being around cricket grounds. He doesn't go to cricket grounds any more.
'My son has had abuse at school as well. All the 'your dad's a racist' stuff.'
Blain was one of seven individuals charged with promoting a culture of racism inside Yorkshire Cricket Club
Summoned to appear before a Cricket Discipline Commission on charges of bringing the game into disrepute Michael Vaughan – the former England captain – successfully contested the claims and won his case.
Others, including Blain, accepted legal advice from the players' union to steer clear of an expensive and 'irredeemably flawed' process. Hearing testimony from Rafiq that Blain had referred on separate occasions to people of Pakistani origin as 'P***s', the allegation was supported by similar claims from Majid Haq, his former Scotland team-mate.
In absentia the six men were found guilty and ordered to pay fines of £2500, the findings igniting an inferno in Scotland. Haq and his former international team-mate Qasim Sheikh submitted claims similar in nature – and wording – to those of Rafiq.
In 2021 sportscotland appointed Plan4Sport to conduct a review of the allegations of racism.
The result was 'Changing the Boundaries', a report citing 448 examples of alleged institutional racism in the Scottish game. A total of 53 allegations were progressed against 31 people, two clubs and two regional associations.
Thirteen of the cases went as far as the Conduct in Sport manager. Despite sportscotland paying £189,000 to Plan4Sport for the report and £647,849 to legal firms Harper Macleod, Bishop Lloyd & Jackson Solicitors and equality support group Sporting Equals, none of the referrals met the criteria for further action.
There was no action or findings of guilt against any individual or sporting body. Neither, for that matter, was there a public exoneration for those with a stain on their reputation.
'I didn't do this, I didn't say this, I didn't behave like this,' adds Blain.
'So when you ask me what I want from this, I want a meeting with the Sports Minister Maree Todd. I want to be publicly cleared.
'I know that certain people have met with the Sports Minister. I have never been afforded that opportunity.
'I have written to her. In fact I had to write to her a second time in order to get her to respond.
'She delegated the matter down to Maureen Campbell of sportscotland. But I will not stop at this. I can't stop.'
Former Cricket Scotland chair Tony Brian has come to regard the Changing the Boundaries investigation as a kangaroo court established to make an example of an entire sport. It destroyed reputations, then spent fortunes failing to make the evidence stack up. Quietly spoken, the weight of Brian's anger and indignation is loud and clear.
'In my life I can't think of a bigger scandal in Scottish sport,' he states.
John Blain at the Grange Cricket Club (Image: Gordon Terris)
'We have come to a decision where a sport was found guilty of institutional racism and absolutely pilloried, not just by media accusations, but by a national sport governing body.
'There was evidence produced – allegedly – supporting these claims. And that evidence has now all evaporated.
'Yet they are still refusing to admit that or to even take further any investigations which will clarify the whole thing.
'I would say there is an obligation to publish the outcome.
'Especially when it reached a conclusion which is unclear.
'Where is their evidence? If they have it why won't they publish it?
'The amount of money spent on this investigation by sportscotland must be close to £1 million now. And for what?'
After sitting on a letter from former Cricket Scotland chief executive Pete Fitzboydon which, he believed, exonerated him of all charges
Cricket Scotland subsequently informed Blain that the letter merely indicated an inability to proceed further with the allegations against him.
Since then correspondence has flown back and forth. Blain wrote – twice – to Sports Minister Todd at the end of last year requesting a meeting. Informed that the Scottish Government were 'unable to intervene in individual cases' he was urged to engage with Cricket Scotland instead.
Tony Brian also wrote to Todd, receiving a reply on April 8 refuting allegations of a breach of governance by sportscotland.
In a statement to this newspaper Forbes Dunlop, chief executive, of sportscotland, reiterated that defence.
'We are clear there has been no breach of governance. We have a robust complaints process at sportscotland and we have been clear with all parties that if anyone has a specific complaint they wish to raise, then this is the route they should take. We follow the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) process for handling complaints. If someone is unhappy with their response, they can then contact the SPSO.'
Read more:
John Blain wants answers and justice as cricket racism claims quashed
'How can racism in cricket be worse than football'
Brian has already been advised by the SPSO that the case won't be reviewed. He is equally non-plussed by the reluctance of sportscotland chair Maureen Campbell to meet six 'senior and well-respected' figures in Scottish cricket concerned by the way in which the Changing the Boundaries investigation was carried out.
Campbell did agree to a face-to-face meeting with Blain on January 15, informing him afterwards that the Referrals Investigation Team had been unable to progress the cases he was involved in due to 'insufficient evidence, the absence of an applicable rule at the time of the complaint and/or a lack of jurisdiction or authority for formal action.'
Cricket Scotland, the letter added, had already relayed the information that a 'procedural inability to progress these matters to a conduct in sport panel was not a statement of exoneration.'
When we meet the former seam bowler turns up in a long, padded puffer jacket emblazoned with a Grange Cricket Club badge on the breast. For much of the last three years he has felt like a man with 'guilty' plastered across the back.
'The easiest way for me to describe is as if I was walking around with a jacket on that I can't remove. It's a dirty jacket.
'I did a statement last June and it was cathartic to get the information out there that I had been exonerated.
'But the truth is that I still have the jacket on. I still wear it every day.
'I can't work in England again, I lost my job at the BBC, I worked at Heriot's School in Edinburgh, I worked at Kibble in Paisley until someone phoned them and I was sacked from there as well.
'I think the dial has shifted somewhat now.
'But to take the jacket off I would like a public apology from the authorities.
'I would like an investigation into the whole business and I would like to be cleared.
'I would like a public apology, a public confirmation, that I have been through this process and cleared. I would like to be exonerated.
'I would also like Cricket Scotland and sportscotland to write to the ECB to help with that side of things as well.'
To fight the accusations against him Blain has started a Go Fund Me page to raise funds. To date the total stands at £37,000, enough to cover the first wave of legal bills, if not the next.
In her communication Campbell advised Blain that, in order to address the outstanding sanctions imposed by the ECB in 2023 he would need to pay the outstanding fine and undertake Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training at his own expense.
In 2022 he was 'temporarily suspended' from the Scottish cricket hall of fame over the ECB finding with no sign of the suspension being lifted until he pays the fine and undertakes the EDI course.
In December 2023 the ECB established the Cricket Regulator. A body responsible for monitoring compliance with the game's regulations, the regulator is overseen by the independent Cricket Regulatory Board and ring-fenced from the rest of the ECB. For Blain it's another avenue to pursue. Another mountain to climb in search of absolution.
'John was not found guilty,' concludes Tony Brian. 'He needs and deserves a chance to clear his name.'
