Officials of the Bradford Cricket League could face a court battle after complaints they failed to probe alleged racist comments on the pitch.

The Commission for Racial Equality is investigating racism in the League after a team captain claimed one of his batsmen was verbally abused at the crease.

And league officials may find themselves being summonsed to county court to defend themselves in a race discrimination claim which could be brought by the player following a match between Idle and Lightcliffe second teams this season.

Lightcliffe batsman Tony Bowry, who is of West Indian origin, was allegedly racially abused during his innings.

The umpires took no action and after the game Mr Bowry's skipper Bob Furness angrily confronted umpire Tom Priestley and, as a result of his outburst, was banned for a month by the league.

But the league has still not acted over the original race abuse complaints and must now explain why to the powerful race watchdog.

Mr Furness, who is a West Yorkshire police officer, said: "There is a potential claim here under the Race Relations Act. Tony has clearly been abused, and I have a potential claim of victimisation.

"My main concern is that Bradford League has done nothing about the racial abuse towards the player. Nobody from the league has ever spoken to Tony Bowry, they have not bothered to investigate the incident.

"The comment came in the heat of the game but it's wrong, it's illegal and it needs to be investigated."

Nick Simpkins, of the CRE, today confirmed he would be officially contacting the Bradford League and pursuing a complaint under Section 25 of the Race Relations Act which deals with clubs and associations.

"Where someone brings us an allegation of race discrimination we write to the organisation involved and seek its explanation. There is a potential claim for race discrimination at the county court.

"We will be looking to the Bradford League for an explanation of what action it has taken. If the court finds unlawful discrimination, it can award compensation for injury to feelings, as well as legal costs."

Match umpire Mr Priestley, a vastly experienced umpire who is chairman of the Bradford Umpires' Association and a member of the Bradford League Executive, refused to comment on the CRE investigation.

"I reported the Lightcliffe captain to the league and they have dealt with it, that is the end of the matter, and I don't wish to comment further," he said.

Bradford League chairman Graham Reid said: "The alleged racial incident wasn't reported to us by the umpires. Lightcliffe wrote to us, but that was only a third party report. If we looked into every one of these rumours we would need full time officials. We don't act on what's not officially reported.

"As we understand it, the umpire dealt with the matter at the time, he didn't consider it a specifically racist incident."

He said the large number of black and Asian players in the Bradford League showed it was not racist. The league was also currently revising its procedure to take into account the latest guidance from the England Cricket Board, which in February introduced a new clause on racial equality to its Code of Conduct and Spirit of Cricket.

David Clarke, chairman of selectors at Lightcliffe, said he wrote to complain to both Idle CC and the Bradford League about the abuse suffered by Mr Bowry.

"All we wanted to do is highlight the problem in the hope things would improve. We are concerned about the drainage of particularly young Asian players who are deciding to play in Asian leagues - if this sort of thing goes on, there is no wonder."

But Paul Wiseman, captain of Idle second team on the day, said: "We feel the other team is trying to stir it up. We are not a racist team. We had an Asian player in our team on that day. We play hard but I wouldn't let anybody say anything of a racialist nature, without a strong word from me."

Taj Butt, chairman of the Quaid-E-Azam Asian cricket league, said: "We have been aware of this sort of language in cricket for a number of years. It is not acceptable. I'm not aware of anyone ever challenging it before. If bringing a case like this helps to eliminate the problem it's better for the game.