Floodgates open over claims of racism in Scots sport

A LAWYER says he has been flooded with allegations of racism in sport in Scotland following a bombshell report.

Aamer Anwar says he has been shocked by the apparent scale of the problem and says a lack of diversity is a crucial problem and that ‘all-white’ institutions need to change.

It comes after a report published this week detailed institutional racism in Cricket Scotland and included testimony from 200 people involved in the sport.

The entire board of the organisation resigned ahead of its publication and special measures are in place as sportscotland tries to deal with the multitude of issues raised during the review. Mr Anwar’s clients Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh received an apology from Cricket Scotland at yesterday’s T20 international against New Zealand.

Mr Anwar says he is now hearing of similar complaints at other sports in Scotland.

He told STV: ‘We have been flooded with individuals contacting my office to complain about their sports, about what’s happening, about the lack of diversity, the lack of diversity on the boards, the lack of diversity in the coaches, the lack of diversity in terms of selection.

‘These are all-white institutions that are operating and it needs to change.’

Mr Anwar also released a statement yesterday criticising the lack of public comment from Scotland’s white players following the review’s publication.

‘Their attitude is deeply shameful (and) the fact that last year the team were taking the knee can now only be described as tokenism,’ he said.

Yesterday interim Cricket Scotland chief executive Gordon Arthur apologised to Mr Haq and Mr Sheikh for the time taken to investigate the complaints.