Given he is one of five who withdrew from the process citing a lack of faith in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s investigation, a guilty verdict against him appears highly possible. But whatever the outcome in the coming days, Blain believes he could have cleared his name if “due process had been followed”. 

“I come from a police background, and if there’s an allegation made, you go off and do an investigation,” he says. “My dad’s very much got that mind because of his background and his upbringing. But none of that has arrived and we cannot understand why. It’s been so frustrating for me because I have got context and I’ve got evidence to say this couldn’t happen and didn’t happen.” 

To prove his point, Blain is brandishing a diary he kept of the 2010 and 2011 seasons in which he was coaching Rafiq in Yorkshire’s second XI. There is intricate detail of exchanges with all the players. There are several pages raising concern around Rafiq alleged “ill-discipline” at the time. 

There is also a record of Blain holding a meeting with Martyn Moxon, then director of cricket, to discuss Rafiq’s conduct. “The Christian in me wanted to reach out to Azeem,” Blain said, when the allegations were first detailed to him. “I offered that to my lawyer – to just speak to him and to have some sort of dialogue because ultimately, regardless of what he’s said, I care for him and his family.” 

The England and Wales Cricket Board defended its investigation during the Cricket Discipline Commission hearing, saying it wrote to individuals to give them an opportunity to respond in writing before any charge was filed. Any respondent who requested to be spoken to was also spoken to, the governing body added, but Blain is dismayed he was never invited to present his own evidence face to face.

“I was never offered a face-to-face interview,” he said. “I just got my charges through. Between the stages of the process of getting the allegations and then getting the charges was a period of hell. Now as we’re now moving into a third week after the hearings in London, it’s the same sort of thing.” 

‘I will go to the High Court’

Similar complaints over the ECB’s “one-sided” process were raised by Michael Vaughan’s legal team during fraught exchanges at the Fleet Street hearing a fortnight ago. Blain shares complaints raised by the Ashes-winning former England captain about the investigation, but says he has no regrets over his own failure to show up. 

Instead, he reveals he is willing to challenge a potential guilty verdict against him, potentially at the High Court. The former pace bowler who represented Scotland 118 times and claimed 188 wickets was also referred to by Cricket Scotland in the wake of a separate independent review of racism in the Scottish game last year, with Haq coming forward after Rafiq’s claim came to light.

Blain strenuously denies the claims and he has several witnesses saying both claims did not happen. “I think the whole process is unfair,” he adds. “For one thing each case has to be looked at individually. But how they’ve dealt with me feels grossly unfair and if decisions were to go against me then I have to keep going and, ultimately, I will go to the High Court.”