Kamlesh Patel gave his first press conference as the new chairman of the scandal-plagued Yorkshire County Cricket Club (CCC) on 8 November. He spoke for more than 50 minutes and gave a full and commendably honest reckoning of the endemic racist behaviour that had brought the club to its knees. But his most telling choice of words was in describing Azeem Rafiq, the former player whose accusations have precipitated one of the biggest crises in the club’s history, as a “whistleblower” who “should be praised”. For it was perhaps the first time in his almost two decades-long Yorkshire career – first as a junior player and then as a professional – that Rafiq had ever been made to feel welcome at the club.