Raffiq is giving evidence now, live on BBC parliament and website. Tim Bresnan is mentioned, not in a positive way.

Yep, that's specifically what I was worried about.

Raffiq has answered all the questions very well, he comes across as a decent person.

It's unacceptable that he's been treated so badly by the Yorkshire club, it's players and management.

Bresnan statement as reported by the BBC:

Former Yorkshire bowler Tim Bresnan, who was named in Azeem Rafiq's testimony, has released a statement.

“I have been made aware of the bullying claims made against me and have listened to Azeem Rafiq’s account of his time at Yorkshire CCC today with great distress, as I’m sure everyone will have done.

"For any part I played in contributing to Azeem Rafiq’s experience of feeling bullied at Yorkshire, I apologise unreservedly.”

Plus Bears statement:

“We were both moved and disturbed to hear about Azeem Rafiq’s experiences in cricket at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Parliament today.

"We were also disappointed to learn that Azeem had made complaints about Tim Bresnan when both were playing at Yorkshire CCC.

"We understand this related to a section of Yorkshire CCC’s report into Azeem’s allegations of bullying which said that Tim had commented on Azeem’s weight.

"We have spoken to Tim about this and he admits making such a comment.

"We understand there was no substantiated suggestion of racism against Tim, but he is devastated to learn of the impact of his comments and he apologises unreservedly to Azeem.

“Warwickshire CCC has reminded Tim of the high standards of conduct that are expected from everyone working at the club. We are not currently planning disciplinary action relating to his time at another club, but we will review appropriately if any further allegations arise."

The relevant page from the report. Not good from Bres.

https://ibb.co/KyxVKtq

I can't quite match up the Club statement with the extract from the report - the Club says that Tim made a comment about Azeem's weight but the extract from the report is more about general put-downs about Azeem's performances on the field.
The only positives are (a) that he is not alleged to have made any specifically racist comments and (b) that he has unreservedly apologised.

Yes, it doesn't quite hang together does it? For instance, Azeem made the complaint about Bresnan in 2017 (at the time of the incident) so why is Bres only today saying "I have been made aware of the bullying claims made against me..."

The conclusion one can draw is that in 2017 Azeem's complaint was 'handled' in such a way that the accused never even got to hear about it. Which fits in completely with the way we know Yorkshire CCC was being run and what attitudes were.

From the Guardian website
"Rafiq said that Yorkshire’s attitude to him changed the moment after he and six or seven other players made complaints accusing Bresnan of bullying in 2017, but Rafiq said he was the only one singled out for being a troublemaker."

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/16/azeem-rafiq-cricket-racism-yorkshire-dcms-select-committee

Having now read the entire witness statement from Azeem it's clear that Bres was very much one of the bad guys up there. The picture that emerges is that of a bully who as a senior player made no effort to stop the racist remarks of others, even egging them on and laughing, and who through his bullying of an Asian colleague contributed to him contemplating suicide. I think it's hard to take away any positives from that.

https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7832/documents/81586/default/

I felt the club were a bit hasty in releasing that statement this afternoon. And after reading through Azeem Rafiq witness statement I think they need to rethink how they move forward with this.

I agree that the Club needs to re-think what they are saying and what he is apologising for.

This is the specific section of evidence to the employment tribunal about Bresnan, he is mentioned elswhere too

I reccomend you read the full document, it is very disturbing.

Tim Bresnan

1. Tim Bresnan made his debut as a 16 year old in the era of Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan.
   He was an understudy to Matthew Hoggard. In 2008 / 2009 when I started, Tim was a senior player
   and had played for England, so had a lot of influence at YCCC and over younger players. In 2016
   when I came back to YCCC, he was a senior player who was declining. I noticed that his relationship
   with Jason Gillespie, our coach at that time, was difficult and I thought his behaviour towards Jason
   was disrespectful. Jason left the club at the end of 2016 and this is when life at YCCC got worse for
   me: Andrew became coach, and Gary and Tim were captains.
2. Tim was very powerful at YCCC: he had played for Yorkshire all his life, was captain and had played
   for England. It also is worth noting that Tim and Andrew Gale are related: Tim is Andrew’s brother
   in-law. They always supported each other. In my experience, they were a double act: Tim would tag
   along and join in with Andrew’s racist comments and they bounced off each other in terms of the
   bullying. As with Andrew, Tim frequently made racist comments and was unduly harsh towards me
   compared to white British players, which became so unbearable that I made a formal complaint
   against him in 2017 (see further below).
3. By way of brief overview, these are some examples of the treatment I received from Tim:
   (i) Participation in and encouragement of racist comments: Tim would participate with and
   encourage Gary in the racist comments and jokes that were directed at me (for example,
   comments like “is that your uncle’s shop?”), laughing along at such remarks. Tim was a senior
   player who had played for England. I believe that if Tim had pulled Gary up, rather than
   encouraging him, it would not have continued.
   21
   (ii) Unduly harsh criticism of my performance and restricting my professional opportunities: In
   2016 when I came back to YCCC, Yorkshire were at the bottom of the T20 league and
   struggling in one day cricket. However, on my return, Yorkshire made it to the finals and I
   was the lead wicket taker of the season. Despite this, in 2017-2018:
   (a) During warmups in 2017, Tim would come up to me and comment about my bowling and
   talk down to me, making me feel unwanted in the team. When we started playing in
   2017, he stopped giving me opportunities to bowl. Given my performance in 2016, this
   did not make sense.
   (b) During the T20 v Derbyshire on 3 August 2017, I accidentally hit a stump with my leg, a
   no ball was given and the free hit went for a 6. It was a freak, one-off accident. At the
   end of the game, Tim singled me out in the dressing room, shouting abuse in front of my
   teammates, claiming that I had caused us to lose the game. Of course, that wasn’t true:
   many factors that day had contributed to the loss, but I was blamed. I went home in tears
   (and later made a complaint - see below). By way of comparison, in the game before
   (against Lancashire on 15 July 2017), Adam Lyth made an error by running down the pitch
   getting caught when we were ahead on Duckworth Lewis and were about to come off
   the field at any moment because of rain, which literally cost us the game. In the dressing
   room, Tim and Andrew praised and encouraged Adam. There is a clear difference: Adam’s
   error had cost us the win, my one-off freak accident had not. In any event, any number
   of things during any game contribute to the outcome. And yet, I was singled out and
   abused. It was this kind of obvious differential treatment between how white British
   players were treated and how I was treated (and the other Pakistani players, like Adil and
   Rana) that I noticed was a pattern.
   (iii) Belittling comments: Aside from belittling comments about my performance, Tim made
   comments that showed that no matter what I did, I was not valued. For example, in the winter
   of 2017, I was extremely excited to have been given the opportunity to travel to play in Hong
   Kong with a number of high-profile players, and where Brian Lara would be my mentor. A
   22
   teammate commented on this, saying how great it was but Tim responded with disdain and
   said in front of everyone, “it’s nothing, anyone can get a gig there (Hong Kong) it’s nothing”.
4. In light of Tim’s behaviour, I made numerous attempts to raise my concern:
   (i) In 2017, prior to the T20 Durham match at Riverside on 4 August 2017, I went to Richard
   Pyrah (Assistant Coach) and told him how uncomfortable Tim was making me feel with his
   constant digs. Richard dismissed it and simply said “oh, you know what Bres is like, just try to
   ignore him”. (Richard, Tim and Andrew were drinking buddies so I didn’t have much hope
   that my complaint would come to anything).
   (ii) I also took my concerns to my agent, Will Quinn, telling him he had to get me out of YCCC
   because of how Tim was treating me, to the point it was causing me to have suicidal thoughts,
   so I needed to get out. Will took my disclosure to Martyn Moxon (see my text messages with
   Will Quinn: PHB 364; 370-374). Martyn Moxon and Andrew Gale then spoke to me at
   Scarborough (6 August 2017) and I told them I felt isolated, that I was being picked on
   compared to people in similar situations who were not singled out like I was and I described
   the incidents outlined above. Martyn and Andrew admitted that Tim had issues and that
   they would be speaking to him about how he had treated me.
5. After the disclosure to Martyn Moxon, Tim later apologised to me, but it was lip service and didn’t
   change anything. In fact, after my disclosure it got even worse for me – I was getting left out of
   training and games and I believe my disclosure caused more problems for me and led to further
   targeting and bullying.
6. I note here that I was being treated as a problem and considered to be “difficult” for having an
   opinion and raising concerns and complaints, whereas white British players were able to raise
   concerns without facing the same consequences. For example, Alex Lees had raised issues with Tim
   Bresnan and suffered no consequences as a result of his complaint. I highlight this obvious
   difference in treatment in the text messages between Alex and I (PHB 378-382).**

I agree that these are really serious allegations.
To be fair to the Club, they have now issued an updated statement that in part reads:
"We are seriously concerned to learn of Azeem's direct allegations against Tim Bresnan.

"As a result, Warwickshire CCC will seek to talk to Azeem at the earliest opportunity so that we can fully understand the detail of these allegations. We will then talk to Tim to get his perspective.

"This is a delicate matter, as it involves allegations about Tim's behaviour while at another club. However, as we have said before, racism or bullying will not be tolerated here at Warwickshire, and we will not shirk from investigating these matters in full and taking action if necessary."

I'd think the club will be needing to get advice from specialist employment law lawyers.
Would any employer have taken on a person who had acted in the way alleged if they knew about the situation before offering him a contract?

It's a very sorry situation. I agree that it could be difficult from a legal perspective given it all happened before he was with Warwickshire.

The Club make a good point about all this occurring when he was someone else's employee but the allegations are so serious that his presence here could still cause reputational damage to us, not to mention the possibility that it might deter young cricketers from wanting to join the Bears.

I feel sorry for the Club because, as others have pointed out, they are in a very difficult position. On the one hand, everything that is alleged to have occurred happened while Tim Bresnan was with another county; and he denies the allegations so it may prove very difficult to decide what did and didn't happen. On the other hand, the Club certainly will be concerned about reputational damage and will not want to be lined up alongside Yorkshire CCC as the bad guys in this case.
Tim Bresnan was obviously brought into the Club partly because he still had something to offer as an all-rounder but also because he was seen as an influential senior figure at a time when the Club had lost players like Trotty, Ian Bell, Tim Ambrose and Jeetan Patel. Mark Robinson urged Tim not to use winning the Championship as a reason to retire but to play one more season. He could well be regretting that now that Tim is accused of being (though not actually proved to be) a racist bully.

I imagine that he will have his contract paid off and take early retirement. If we employ another seamer as our overseas player would he regularly get into the team anyway, barring injuries?

The situation does raise some safeguarding and welfare issues for Warwickshire, as some members of the playing staff are under 18.