london england cricket chiefs have recommended that yorkshire be fined 500000 638000 and given hefty points deductions over their handling of the azeem rafiq racism scandalpakistanborn bowler rafiq 32 went public with allegations of racism and bullying in september 2020 related to his two spells at the english countythe sanctioning recommendations were made to an independent cricket discipline commission cdc panel in london on tuesdayyorkshire admitted to four charges in february related to the mishandling of rafiqs casesix former yorkshire players were fined last month by the cdc after being found guilty of using racist languageformer england captain michael vaughan was cleared of using racist language on the balance of probabilitiesgoverning body the england and wales cricket board suggested 350000 should be suspended for three years while the remaining 150000 should be payable in instalments between january and june 2024yorkshire said last week they were still having positive conversations around the longterm financial future of the clubecb lawyer jane mulcahy said the recommendations took into account the finances of yorkshire and it would be wholly unproductive to put the club out of business insisting the ecb is not trying to do such a thingthe ecb said the seriousness of the admissions required sporting sanctions and proposed a 48 to 72 points deduction in the 2023 county championship and deductions in whiteball competitionsyorkshires response to the recommendations were presented by lawyer daniel stilitz who spoke of the deeply regrettable chapter in the clubs history once again offering their apologies to rafiqhe said yorkshire had already suffered detriment because of the events asking for that to be taken into account in any sanctions passed down and saying if ever a sinner has repented it is yorkshire cricket clubstilitz said 11 sponsors had withdrawn from the club and that financial issues had to be addressed to prevent the club from going into administrationhe asked for punishments handed down to be suspended and said any sanctions imposed would not penalise those responsible