ECB must ‘create a culture where all feel welcome’
⮞ Those close to game’s racism crisis give views on what ruling body’s 12-point action plan, due out tomorrow, should include
Do not just set diversity targets – tackle the culture
Leaked details from a meeting of counties last week suggest that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s 12-point plan will include new black and Asian recruitment targets of 30 per cent in board positions and 20 per cent in coaching roles. However, Dr Thomas Fletcher, whose research at Leeds Beckett University on south Asian communities in cricket was cited before MPS last week, says longer-term research is also needed.
“We need diversity on boards and in coaching roles, etc,” Fletcher said. “However, my concern when it comes to targeting in this respect is that just because you have greater diversity, that doesn’t mean that the culture of the game changes. You can have great diversity but the culture might still reinforce racial or gender-based so-called ‘banter’.
“Representation doesn’t directly mean that they’re going to get a good experience. You need to create a culture whereby communities feel welcome and legitimate in those roles.”
Coming just a week after Azeem Rafiq had given evidence to MPS, Fletcher suggests it may still be too early to be clear on what the game needs. “At the minute, the ECB plans look good in theory, but are they fit for purpose?” he said. “We don’t know. Because I don’t think we really understand the nature and the extent of the problem.”
Ensure anti-racism charities are front and centre
Monty Panesar, the former England spinner who made his Test debut in 2006, says more involvement for organisations such as Show Racism the Red
Card is key. However, he also says: “I remember some of the games we won for England, and we’d sometimes spend all night in a dressing room, just having fun. We need to stamp out racism, but you don’t want it to be a place where, ‘Oh gosh, you’re not allowed to have any sort of banter’. Maybe we need a bit more conversation on that. Let’s not completely lose the spirit of a dressing-room environment.”
Win over the sceptics
John Holder, the former international umpire who dropped a legal claim of institutional racism against the ECB this year, believes nothing will change until cricket in England drops its status as “a gentleman’s game and remembers it reflects society just like any sport”.
“I actually don’t think we need another plan because I don’t believe any of the fine words that the ECB speak,” he said. Holder, 76, who last stood as an international umpire in 2001, stands by his own claims of “institutional racism”, which the ECB was forced to deny in June.
Keep whistleblower hotline open
Rafiq, who blew the scandal wide open, is declining to comment until he has seen the plan, but friends say he is a champion for the ongoing use of the whistleblowing hotline across cricket. He said last week he believed “hundreds and thousands” of cricketers could follow his lead by sharing experiences of racism. “I do feel it’s going to be a little bit of ‘floodgates’ and a lot of victims of abuse are going to come forward,” he added.
Take up offers of free training
Hope Not Hate, the campaign group that has rallied behind Rafiq for the past year, has yet to hear back from the ECB after offering to include the governing body in its new initiative, Run Racism Out. “This training will be free to all major county clubs who are interested in signing up,” the group has said.
Involve victims in process
Yorkshire say they want to wait until the ECB’S plan has been published before commenting, but Lord Patel, the county’s new chairman, this week underlined the importance of involving victims of racism in the process of restoring trust in the game. “Only through committing to listen, and to believe, those who have bravely shared their experiences – and those still to do so – can we truly understand the scale of the issue,” he said.