CRICKETER ‘SHUNNED DUE TO RACE’
COUNTY PLAYER CLAIMS HE RECEIVED NO SUPPORT AND ALSO SAYS HE WAS TOLD TO ‘OPEN CORNER SHOP’ DURING LOCAL LEAGUE TIE
BECOMING a professional - sportsman or woman is the dream of many. Sacrifices, hard work and luck are all a part of the journey.
Mohsin Arif grew up attending Glamorgan Cricket matches with his father and uncles as s his love for the game gr grew. The 36-year-old, who was born and bred in Cardiff, played county cricket games in his teenage years.
Many thought he was head and shoulders above others in his age a group, but he wasn’t able to get a professional contract.
He joined the Glamorgan academy and left ta aged 11, but later returned ed d to the second squad in 2005 aged 21.
However, Mohsin felt he wasn’t given enough opportunities to show his talents. He said: “I was playing at St Fagans and our captain had ties with Glamorgan. He said I was talented and he spokes to people at Glamorgan and that’s how I got my opportunity.
“After the first training session and I signed, the situation became difficult. I’m a reserved person so I wouldn’t t complain but I wasn’t being offered any advice or support.
“It was like having a nets ses-sion with your friends. I was left out of tactics, team talks, while other players were involved in this, I was on the side. The opportunity was amazing, I grew up watching Glamorgan so it was a dream for me to be able to represent them. At the time, I was the only one from Cardiff, most were from Llanelli, Swansea and parts of England.”
In their 99 years as as a first-class county, Glamorgan have only selected one player with two British Asian parents to represent them.
However, almost twothirds of the 600 cricketers ric who play in the Cardiff Midweek Cricket League ea are British Asian.
Mohsin felt he had non support at the time and that at he was shunned.
He said: “I spoke to my dad about the situation, he grew up in Reading in the ‘ 60s and knows h ow institutional racism works. “We couldn’t really believe that these things were still happening. “He told me to keep going and prove people wrong and knew the environment wasn’t going to be easy. “I just felt like most of the people grew up
without having experiences of people of “Now, “different if backgrounds. you need support or if there therre were any issues, you’d know who to go to, it wasn’t like that then.”
After not having any luck at Glamorgan, he decided to move around the country playing cricket with different counties.
In 2005, Mohsin was playing a game gam in the South Wales Cricket One of his teammates, an Indian League. foreign student studying at Cardiff University, was batting and was Mohsin ug was in the pavilion and struggling. offered some advice but said he was racially abused afterwards.
He said: “In Cardiff we have lots of it’s foreign great students and this coming particular to study guy and was batting and struggling a little.
“I shouted some words of advice from the pavilion in Hindi so it would be easier for him to understand.
“I basically said ‘stop going for the big shots and get some ones and twos’.
“One opposing player shouted ‘shut up, you P***. Why are you speaking like that? Haven’t you got a corner shop to open or to go to?’.
“I was completely shocked and the people who were around me were shocked too, but this player was known for being mouthy and arrogant. I stood there shocked for a little while then just got on with things.
“At the time, I didn’t report it as I thought there was no point, who would actually listen and do something?
“Things were very different then and also people were able to get away with things then that they wouldn’t now.”
Mohsin said he met his alleged abuser a few weeks later and confronted him. But the player didn’t feel what he said was offensive.
Mohsin, who now ow works in Dubai as a cricket et coach, believes more needs eds to be done to improve rove diversity in sport.
He added: d: “There’s so much h more that can be e done and more e engagement needs s to be made with h people from ethnic ic backgrounds.
“I love my job b in
Dubai and I’m helping elping people improve their eir game.
But I’d love to return turn and help out in Cardiff where re I could could.
“My days are gone now but I look at my seven-year-old son, he absolutely loves the game and I don’t want things to be tough for him.”
In the past few days, Glamorgan Cricket have held a meeting with Mohsin to discuss his claims and how they can improve the diversity within the club.
They also have two British Asian members on their board and are working on an initiative that will aim to increase ethnic minority representation.
Sohail Rauf, a director at the National Asian Cricket Council and chairman of Llandaff Cricket Club, highlighted there were still problems with racism now.
He said Llandaff had been to some “hostile” environments. The majorit majority of Llandaff players are British Asian, and they the have also bemoaned the lack of fa facilities available. ble.
Sohail said: “Yes, we’ve experienced racism, we’ve been to environments whe where it was very hostile.
“The “There is also a huge demise d in the quality of pitches at grassroots level, which also doesn’t help our progression. progression
“Our home pitch Llandaff Fields doesn’t have changing rooms and we’ve been denied promotion on many occasions due to the lack of facilities.”
The team previously played at Llandaff Cathedral for 14 years, but no longer have access to the pitch. It meant they have been forced to play at Rhoose, a 45-minute drive from Cardiff. As for change in the future, he was partially optimistic
“Will the number of Asians who play for Glamorgan increase in the next five to 10 years? I certainly hope so.
“Do I see it happening? Realistically, one or two. A mass influx? No.
A spokesman for Cardiff council, said: “The strict criteria set by the England and Wales Cricket Board mean that to play at the level reached by Llandaff Cricket Club a specific standard of facilities is required.
“Providing facilities which meet the ECB criteria could potentially cost upwards of £1m – a cost which is prohibitive for many urban cricket clubs, which tend to have limited finances of their own to draw on.
“The council continues to work with the club and is actively looking at ways that it can help them reach those standards and address the significant gap between the small amount of funding provided by the ECB and the cost of building the required new changing and community facilities.
“Cricket is played over a fivemonth summer season, so in order to obtain best value for public money, it’s key that a partner winter sport is found to occupy the facilities during the off-season and generate the essential income that will help sustain the club in the long term.”
Things were very different then and also people were able to get away with things then that they wouldn’t now...