AZEEM RAFIQ'S tearful testimony before MPs was very hard to listen to.

There many issues at play here – he was also angry at the "inhuman" way he was treated by Yorkshire Cricket Club after his son was still-born in 2017 – but much of it boils down to the way Rafiq felt "humiliated" by the constant racism that was aimed at him.

There are difficult boundaries in laddish dressing rooms about what is, and what is not, banter, but in the 2010s, people must have been aware that the P-word was horribly offensive and "jokes" about corner shops and unusual names – every Asian player was called 'Kevin' because the Yorkshire cricketers struggled to pronounce their names – were shockingly backward. Even more shocking is that management at all levels failed to hear what was going on, which gives credence to the claim that the club is institutionally racist.

There is now a firestorm engulfing the club which threatens to consume the reputations – and careers – of even players who were on the margins of what happened.

Indeed, in a county where cricket is an embodiment of straight-talking, no nonsense approach to life, the reputation of all Yorkshire is being burned.

But what to do? As well as this being a problem for Yorkshire and for cricket, it is a problem for wider society, and the first step is for it to be called out, for people to be brave and to hear what is being said and then for them to say that racist language – even as banter – is unacceptable.