I WATCH MY LAD PLAY ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ... HE IS THE ONLY BLACK BOY I’VE SEEN
ASTorY from one of england’s greatest black cricketers provides harrowing proof of how homogenised the sport in this country threatens to become. These days Devon Malcolm, whose ferocious fast bowling terrorised some of the world’s best batsmen, can be found on the other side of the boundary rope, watching his son Jaden play for Northamptonshire’s junior teams.
‘He’s 14 now and I have taken him around the country since he was nine, right through the age groups,’ Malcolm, 57, tells Sportsmail. ‘He’s been on tours, played at festivals, all around, and the most baffling thing is that in travelling all these years, I can’t recall one other black boy other than him.’
our research shows just how white county cricket is becoming in the third decade of the 21st century — eight counties had one or no British BAMe player on their staff for 2020. The four with none are Durham, Gloucestershire, Somerset and warwickshire.
Malcolm’s revelation suggests things aren’t going to improve any time soon.
‘Look at the county academies,’ he says. ‘Are there any Asian boys coming through? Any black boys? They reach a certain level and just pack up. why are they being discouraged? why are they not getting a chance to go further down the line? These things need to be looked at. The numbers are pathetic.’ Malcolm’s emergence during the early 1980s, from the relative obscurity of Yorkshire league cricket, feels like it could not happen in the modern day.
He reflects: ‘In my case, I was in the right place at the right time. From being at college, I nicked off on a Friday to play a representative game, got the right player out in Geoffrey Boycott, and by the Monday I was a pro with Derbyshire. The rest is history and I played for 20 years. Now a youngster won’t get looked at unless they’re on a pathway system.’
Malcolm believes much more must be done to engage youngsters from Afro-Caribbean communities with what can be a prohibitively costly sport.
‘It’s a very exclusive and expensive game to play so the black community’s involvement might be past its peak,’ he says. ‘Unless you have a parent pushing, like me — someone able to ferry the kids around — it is not going to happen.
‘For a lot of black boys, especially those with single parents, it is a no-brainer for them if they are choosing between football and cricket. All you need for football is a pair of boots. Don’t worry about bats, pads, balls.
‘we need to encourage them, help them get extra practice, without their parents having to fork out £16 a time. Get them to play for clubs. when I played for Sheffield Caribbean, the costs were nowhere near as high. we had a communal kit bag. You pulled out a bat and some pads and played a game. we could be missing some very talented players and it would only take a tiny bit of organising to get these guys exposed to this wonderful game.’
Two more black former internationals, Monte Lynch and Phillip DeFreitas, are determined to do just that through their work with London Schools. Their vision is to open up opportunities for all cricketers regardless of race, skin colour or social background.
This summer they held trials for more than 800 children and are currently formulating squads for winter programmes that solely reflect ability.
The eCB launched a new inclusion and diversity strategy in July as a first wave of what they insist will be a sustained response to the issue.
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) have formulated an equality, diversity and inclusion project working group following recent claims of racism, the highest profile of which has seen Yorkshire launch a probe into the treatment of their former player Azeem rafiq.
‘The sad fact is that numbers of players of BAMe origin have declined and this needs to change,’ said PCA interim chief executive rob Lynch.
‘The PCA is not shying away from what has happened in the past and we are committed to change in the future.’