Jahid Ahmed: 'Racism and bullying never leave you,' says ex-Essex player

Jahid Ahmed was one of three players whose racism allegations led to an investigation by Essex CCC

One of the former Essex players subjected to racial abuse at the club says youngsters of today must never have to go through the same experience.

Jahid Ahmed was among three players whose allegations of mistreatment led to an independent investigation.

The inquiry's findings were published last week and the club admitted serious errors had been made in the past.

"Unfortunately these things will never leave you, it will stick with you forever," Ahmed told BBC Essex.

"When people bully you or racially abuse you, these are things you're never going to forget.

"Obviously I have to stay strong about it and even though I hate talking about it because it keeps reminding me of the past, I have to - it's for the next generation.

"I want to make sure none of these guys in the future have to face these sort of things. I want to make sure it must never happen again."

Ahmed, now 37, made his Essex debut in a County Championship match against Worcestershire in September 2005.

The seam bowler played seven first-class matches for the club in total, taking 13 wickets, along with eight limited-overs games.

After leaving the club in 2009, he made two appearances for Unicorns in the CB40 competition the following year.

The investigation, led by Katharine Newton KC, began in 2021 following allegations by Ahmed, Maurice Chambers and Zoheb Sharif, although none were referred to by name in her 38-page report.

• Essex players victims of racist abuse - report

'Relieved' to be heard

Ahmed said he still had not seen the full report but was "relieved" to have been heard and pleased that most of his evidence had been upheld.

Essex chairman Anu Mohindru said in a statement last week: "Significant progress has been made across the club to build a workplace that values and respects every individual, regardless of their background, identity, and beliefs."

And the club are now considering possible sanctions against individuals as a result of the report.

Ahmed said he believed "institutional racism" still occurs within cricket but he hoped clubs would not look to bring in players from ethnic minority backgrounds merely as a "ticking boxes exercise".

He continued: "When I was trialling, under-16, I would have said 60, 70 or even 80% were ethnic minority kids. How many actually went on and actually became a professional cricketer? Not many."

Ahmed said many of his memories of playing for the club were negative but continued: "There were some great moments. Playing with some of the greatest names you can think of, legends of the game, for me to walk into a changing room and see these guys, I was thinking 'am I in the right place?'"

He praised former England head coach Andy Flower and his brother Grant - who both played for Essex during his time at the club - for their encouragement and support as he tried to make his way in the game, showing him what it meant to be a professional cricketer.

Andy and Grant Flower played international cricket for Zimbabwe, as well as for Essex

"Some players were looking out for me and advising me - Andy Flower, Grant Flower, these two guys were the best people I've ever met.

"They made me learn how to be a hard worker, they advised me, took me out to the gym, and practising. They were brilliant and I couldn't ask for any better than that."

The report made 15 recommendations, including the setting up of compulsory EDI (Equality, diversity and inclusion) training for everyone employed by the club and Ahmed said he hoped the right person would be chosen to oversee the various initiatives.

He added: "It needs to be someone who is qualified and has experience of these sort of things and actually has passion about it, to make changes.

"I think Essex have made mistakes with some of those things before so I hope they [have] learned from that."

Jahid Ahmed was talking to BBC Essex's Sonia Watson