Yorkshire have strongly condemned their Australian batting star Darren Lehmann for his recent racist remarks and have insisted that there is no place in the club for racist attitudes, behaviour or language, writes David Warner.

But chief executive Colin Graves reiterated that Yorkshire would not be taking any action of their own against Lehmann and he emphasised that the only reason he had not being re-appointed captain was because it was extremely doubtful that he would be available this summer

Graves said that the club's management board had considered a report from director of cricket Geoff Cope about the disciplinary incident involving Lehmann during the Australia v Sri Lanka one-day match in Brisbane.

"Darren has accepted his punishment from the International Cricket Council of a five-match ban and he is very remorseful about the incident," said Graves.

"Yorkshire condemns the remarks made by Darren. It finds them totally unacceptable and they are not required in the game of cricket, especially in Yorkshire.

"The club condemns his language and behaviour on this occasion and there cannot be a satisfactory excuse or explanation.

"As to his future with the club, the Board has considered the matter in the context of his service over the past three years, the last as captain, and also in the context of his excellent record for good conduct and his personal qualities.

"In these circumstances they have concluded that his position with the club is unaffected by the incident.

"We want to make it quite clear that Yorkshire CCC, its Board, players and Darren Lehmann are not racist in any way whatsoever and if the recent incident has upset or annoyed anyone concerned with cricket in general or with Yorkshire then we apologise to those people."

Graves said that Yorkshire welcomed all Asian and black players within the county and they were working hard to increase the opportunities for them to play for the club at all levels.

Yorkshire had a cricket development officer of West Indian origin in Tony Bowry who was involved with black and ethnic minorities.

They had three players of Asian origin at the Academy or on scholarship and 14 players of Asian origin in their 11-16 year group of players, plus 30 Asian youngsters at eight centres under their Pathways to Excellence scheme.

Updated: 11:00 Saturday, January 25, 2003