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Former England batter Gary Ballance has admitted that he was the one who used a racial slur against former Yorkshire teammate Azeem Rafiq.The Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) in September this year had said Rafiq, during his first spell as a player at YCCC, was the victim of racial harassment and bullying.Ballance said he "deeply regretted" the language he used in his younger years."To be clear - I deeply regret some of the language I used in my younger years. The independent enquiry, having heard all of the evidence, accepted that the context of some of the language used was in a "friendly verbal attack" between friends which was not intended to offend or hurt and that no malice was intended," Ballance said in a lengthy statement as per Yorkshire's website."Given my incredibly close relationship with Rafa over the years I am saddened that it has come to this. Rafa and I started playing for Yorkshire at a similar time and we quickly developed a very close bond."He encouraged me to play club cricket for his club Barnsley CC, which I did, we went on many tours together, with both Yorkshire and the England Performance Programme, and we always supported each other on and off the pitch. We socialised a lot together away from the game and would also drink and enjoy ourselves together," he added.Further speaking about the issue, the former England batter, said "Because we were such good friends and spent a lot of time together drinking and on nights out we both said things privately to each other which were not acceptable. It has been reported that I used a racial slur and, as I told the independent enquiry, I accept that I did so and I regret doing so."I do not wish to discredit Rafa by repeating the words and statements that he made about me and others but I have to be clear that this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate," Ballance added.In September 2020, the Yorkshire Club received a number of allegations of racism made by former player Azeem Rafiq spanning back to 2008. The Club then launched a full investigation.( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

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