​Azeem Rafiq: Cricket faces day of reckoning with UK lawmakers -- As you get further up in the sport, 'the game gets whiter and whiter'

After a turbulent month which has brought to light multiple allegations of racism by former players of Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC), senior management figures from the club will today answer questions in a UK parliamentary inquiry over the organization's handling of ​Azeem Rafiq's allegations of racism.

While many sports players and governing bodies have been grappling with issues surrounding race and inequality on and off the pitch, cricket is still seen as "staunchly conservative," Tom Fletcher, ​an academic in events, tourism and hospitality management at Leeds Beckett University, told CNN.

"As you get further through the system, the game gets whiter and whiter," he said. "That happens in all walks of the game, [it] happens within coaching as well," Fletcher, whose research focuses on racism and social justice, said.