Cricket’s Rooney Rule ECB to target Asian fans and coaches
Governing body to introduce Rooney Rule Halal food, music and flags welcome at games
English cricket has revealed an action plan to attract Asian fans and make up for decades of neglecting communities who love the sport.
A 105-page England and Wales Cricket Board report released today outlines how the Rooney Rule is to be adopted to ensure coaches from ethnic minorities are given equal opportunities. Other measures include the serving of halal food at matches, encouraging music and flags, providing multi-faith prayer areas and moving food courts away from areas serving alcohol.
The proposals are the result of two years of consultations and surveys working with the South Asian community and spearheaded by Lord Patel of Bradford, an increasingly influential figure at the board.
The Rooney Rule will mean at least one candidate holding the necessary qualifications from a BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) background will make the shortlist of every ECB coaching job, from junior pathway cricket to disabled cricket and right up to the head coaches of the senior men’s and women’s teams. Overseas candidates, from Pakistan for example, will count as fulfilling the criteria.
The ECB will also hold talks with the counties, urging them to adopt the Rooney Rule over the next two years after their study revealed that only five per cent of coaching jobs in first-class cricket were held by people from an Asian background.
The Rooney Rule was adopted by American football in 2003 to ensure African-american coaches received equal opportunity for coaching jobs. “This is an area of significant long-term importance for the ECB, which will initially see investment focused on the targeted development and support of elite BAME coaches through a bespoke mentoring and work-placement scheme,” the report states.
The ECB also plans to deliver “unconscious bias” training for county academy directors to educate them about the needs of ethnic minorities, award bursaries to players from poor backgrounds and appoint Community Talent Champions to help Asian cricketers navigate the route from parks cricket to the professional game in the hope of stemming the flood of lost talent.
Twenty Urban Cricket Centres will be established over the next two years, putting the women’s and girls’ game at the forefront. Blackout blinds will be installed to respect cultural sensitivities, and 200 female coaches will be recruited.
The report reveals cricketers from the South Asian community make up a third of the sport’s participants at amateur level but the figure drops to a shocking four per cent in the professional game.
A lack of talent identification and decent facilities in urban areas, where the majority of South Asian communities live, are blamed for the failings. The report paints a picture of a South Asian community obsessed with cricket, but not engaged with the English game. It states that 42 per cent of Sky subscribers are South Asian and that 30 per cent watch the Indian Premier League, a figure that drops to just four per cent for the county Twenty20 Vitality Blast.
“We know cricket is central to
the identity of being South Asian, but this doesn’t include traditional ‘English cricket’, which has a very different image in the minds of South Asian cricket fans,” says the report. “Whilst they see South Asian cricket, such as the IPL, as being fun, relevant and a game of entertainment, they see English cricket as serious, less important and old fashioned, creating a significant cultural and practical challenge for us to engage the South
Asian audience.
“We will optimise the match-day experience at all major matches, by increasing the cultural awareness across the customer journey, creating an energetic environment with ‘razzmatazz’ and, where possible, allowing musical instruments and flags, diversifying the food offering for everyone and making sure there is a selection of halal and vegetarian food options available.”
It should avoid thoughtless incidents of the past, such as counties holding pig roasts when hosting a Pakistan tourist match. Shifting the cultural experience of a day of Test cricket, with its beer snakes, will be difficult, but is partly why only three per cent of tickets are bought by the South Asian community.
The ECB has identified 10 core areas to work with South Asian communities: Birmingham, Bradford, Kirklees, Leeds, Leicester, London, Luton, Manchester, Sandwell and Slough.
Role models have been identified as being crucial and the new Hundred competition is part of the process. It is reported 58 per cent of South Asian cricketers prefer playing Twenty20 or an even shorter format. Moeen Ali has spoken in the past of the difficulties faced by Asians in breaking through.