JOHN Faragher has resigned from his role as Essex chair with immediate effect following a historic allegation of racist language used by him at a board meeting in 2017.

Faragher stepped down after a meeting on Thursday and while he strongly denies the incident, the club are intent on reviewing why it was not fully and independently investigated at the time.

New chief executive John Stephenson said: “There is no place for discrimination of any kind at Essex County Cricket Club.

“This is a proud club with a zero-tolerance policy towards racism and any form of discrimination and, as Essex Cricket’s new Chief Executive Officer, I will not hesitate to uphold those principles and drive out any form of discrimination that is uncovered.”

Stephenson only took over day-to-day running of the LV= Insurance County Championship club in October and revealed he first found out about the alleged incident which involved Faragher this week.

He added: “I was made aware of this single allegation on Thursday having joined the club four weeks ago. The Board met last night [Thursday] during which John Faragher’s resignation was unanimously accepted by the Board.

“We are committed to working with the England & Wales Cricket Board to eradicate discrimination from the game.

“This is an important first step, but the club must now act further. Our internal reporting mechanisms will be reviewed to ensure that matters such as this are dealt with appropriately and immediately.

“I intend for those next actions to be communicated as soon as possible.”

he England and Wales Cricket Board has opened an investigation into the incident after a complaint was initially taken up with the governing body.

This was not the case when Azeem Rafiq alleged institutional racism at Yorkshire, with the original complaint being taken up with the county and not the ECB.

An ECB spokesperson said: “There is absolutely no place for racism or any form of discrimination in our game.

“The England and Wales Cricket Board opened an investigation into Essex County Cricket Club after receiving an allegation involving John Faragher, who has subsequently resigned as the club chair. The ECB is taking this allegation extremely seriously.”