FINDINGS
Yorkshire CCC (YCCC) fielded Azeem Rafiq (AR) in a Twenty20 match against Nottinghamshire CCC (Notts) on June 27 2008.
AR came to England at the age of 10 in 2001. He played cricket for Barnsley CC, has been part of YCCC’s development programme since 2002, has represented the County at every age group. In 2006 he was selected as the England captain, in 2007 he was captain of ECB Under 16 team against Australia and continued during that year and 2008 to be involved in ECB and Yorkshire cricket sessions.
AR’s current nationality is Pakistani. He intends applying for a British Citizenship in February 2009 when he reaches the age of 18.
Following an England Under 19 tour to Malaysia the question of AR’s eligibility was raised with YCCC by John Abrahams the ECB Elite Player Development Manager.
YCCC submitted to ECB a list of registered cricketers as at April 10 2008. AR was included in Part C, a notified list, but not in the registered list, nor were any YCCC Academy players.