Cricket Scotland acts over racism review

Cricket Scotland has established an independent process for investigating individual complaints which emerged from the recent damning review into racism within the sport and governing body.

Sports law firm Harper MacLeod will work in conjunction with race equality charity Sporting Equals and campaign group Running Out Racism to review and investigate complaints.

Cricket Scotland has revealed the work is already under way and will take “some months”.

A total of 68 individual concerns were referred for further investigation following Plan4Sport’s independent review of allegations of racism within the organisation.

These included 31 allegations of racism against 15 people, two clubs and one regional association.

The report uncovered extensive institutional racism within Cricket Scotland, whose entire board stepped down on the eve of publication in July.

Cricket Scotland’s interim chief executive Gordon Arthur said: “Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in the process of understanding the full circumstances of these referrals, speaking to any individuals who have been mentioned in referrals and any witnesses to events that have been reported.

“Only when we have investigated fully, will we be able to decide what action might be taken in individual circumstances, to bring closure on these issues.”

Waqqas Ashraf of Running Out Racism welcomed the thought that Cricket Scotland had put into the process.

“Key to building trust in future changes first starts with dealing robustly with past issues,” he said.