Akhtar ‘steps aside’ at Essex

Essex are under pressure to sack chairman Azeem Akhtar just days into his tenure after it emerged he had “liked” Twitter posts that campaigners have branded anti-semitic.

Akhtar has “voluntarily stepped aside” pending an independent review into his endorsement of the tweets, as first revealed by the Jewish Chronicle.

Their emergence is deeply embarrassing for Essex, who announced Akhtar as their first ethnic-minority chair on Monday. His predecessor, John Faragher, was forced out over claims he used the racist term “n----- in the woodpile”, which he denies.