Batting for inclusion
AS ENGLAND captain Jos Buttler held aloft the T20 World Cup trophy, his jubilant teammates were desperate to mark the occasion by popping open champagne bottles.
But even during the excitement of a post-win celebration, Buttler remembered his two Muslim teammates, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali. After the pair had lifted the trophy and posed for pictures, Buttler gestured to them that the champagne was about to be popped and Rashid and Ali stepped away to one side.
At a time when many organisations continue to fail to address diversity and inclusion – 20 FTSE 100 companies don’t have an ethnic minority board member and just 50 of FTSE 250 firms have one – the England cricket team is a beacon of light for implementing an inclusive culture.
Rashid, for example, went on the Hajj earlier this year, with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) happy to give him the time off to complete the pilgrimage. He said the backing he got from the ECB and his county Yorkshire was “magnificent”.
When Ali was asked if diversity in the changing room has helped the level of acceptance and education around the group, he said: “100 per cent. Since Rash was away, I had to answer a lot of questions about Hajj, which has been great. That sort of dialogue is really important, and it works both ways obviously.
“The diversity around the group and team has been really good for a while now. Anybody can come in and out of the changing room from any sort of background or differences that they have, and everyone just sort of fits like a glove almost.”
And it’s not just British Asian players – the England team has players from a Caribbean background in Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan, Sam Curran is of Zimbabwean heritage and match-winner Ben Stokes was born in New Zealand.
As the 2019 inclusion and diversity report by McKinsey pointed out, the most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform non-diverse ones on profitability. And while they might not be in the boardroom, with two World Cup wins in three years, the England cricket team is leading the way in proving the power of diversity and inclusion.