Change must be seen to be done

A REPORT issued today will reveal institutional racism within Scottish cricket.

The review was launched last year after former Scotland players Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh made serious allegations about the sport’s governing body.

An interim report in April revealed the review had resulted in police involvement, with referrals also to Children First.

Publication will amount to a day of reckoning for senior figures who are either directly culpable or did nothing.

This is why the entire board of Cricket Scotland has resigned en masse ahead of the report coming out.

Aamer Anwar, the players’ lawyer, said it would send tremors throughout the sport, adding: “The inquiry has pulled no punches. It is a devastating indictment of Cricket Scotland, an organisation that was riddled from top to bottom with institutional racism.

“Cricket Scotland and those who have resigned should be under no illusions. They have failed to actually hold people to account.”

The next stage must be the full implementation of whatever the report recommends.

Its findings cannot be ignored and the report must not be allowed simply to gather dust.

People from ethnic minority communities must have confidence that the new board takes racism seriously.

Other organisations have been found to be institutionally racist and far-reaching consequences followed.

Change must be done – and be seen to be done.