Azeem Rafiq’s enemies are trying to dig up as much dirt as they can on the 30-year-old Pakistani-origin cricketer so that they can discredit his campaign to root out racism not only at Yorkshire but in English cricket as a whole.

In the latest twist, Rafiq has been accused of “sexting” a then 16-year-old girl, Gayathri Ajith, in December 2015, three months after they met on a flight from Manchester to Dubai.

Gayathri, who is now 22 and lives in Yorkshire, offered screenshots of the “creepy” messages to the Yorkshire Post, telling the paper: “I was just kind of shocked by the crudity of those messages. They were just so vulgar.”

She admits telling Rafiq she was 17 to “seem a bit older” and agreed to have a vodka coke with him during the flight but turned down an invitation to go out on a dinner date with him in Dubai.

In his alleged text messages, Rafiq told her, “u know what I wanted to do on the plane?” and “I want to grab you push u up against wall and kiss you”.

When she said “do you realise that I’m only 17? she was asked, “Does tht mean it not allowed to want to kiss me” and “Wud u have let me kiss u?”

Gayathri claims she came forward after Rafiq’s emotional evidence to members of parliament of how he had been a long-time victim of racism at Yorkshire and had wine forced down his throat when he was 15.

Gayathri said: “I’m not disputing any of his racism claims, because I’m sure they’re very true experiences. But certain aspects of what he said just don’t really sit right with me. If he was being forced to drink by his teammates, then surely that wouldn’t then mean he would be drinking alone on a flight and encouraging a 17-year-old girl to be drinking with him. His behaviour towards me was a direct contradiction really of what he said in his testimony. He’s calling for equality and respect, but why is he not embodying that in all aspects? Especially in his tone towards women. It’s hypocrisy.”

She added: “He is being put on this pedestal for inciting systemic change, but he’s really contributing to the problem of the vulgar attitudes towards women. The whole nature of that doesn’t sit right with me.”

Commenting on Rafiq’s anti-Semitic messages but before the “sexting” allegations came to light, the BBC’s sports editor, Dan Roan, said that “there is no denying that the revelation is highly embarrassing for Rafiq, and will change many people’s perception of him. Put simply, he has been seen to have made the kind of offensive racial slur that he has criticised others for, inevitably leaving him open to accusations of double-standards and hypocrisy.

“What many will insist Rafiq’s apology does not change, however, is the fact that he was found to have been the victim of racism over a long period of time at Yorkshire. That racism is not ‘banter’. That Roger Hutton — the former chairman of the club — fears it is institutionally racist. And that the man who replaced him — Lord Patel — has conceded the investigation into Rafiq’s claims was ‘flawed’.”