The England Cricket board, has published three reports on the progress in making cricket a more welcoming and inclusive sport.
This comes after controversial cases of racism allegations, with the most prominent being from Azeem Rafiq, who in September 2020, alleged ‘”institutional racism” at Yorkshire Cricket Club.
Mr Rafiq’s case was highly profiled, which also led to Yorkshire County batsman Gary Ballance apologising to Azeem for the racist language used by him in August this year.
Following Azeem Rafiq’s testimony to the DCMS select committee, a year ago, along with the stories of others who have spoken out about their experiences, the governing body for the sport came together to commit to actions ‘to go further and faster in changing the sport.’
The board, while acknowledging there remains much more work to do, has through the three reports, promised to being open and transparent about the progress being made.
The three reports demonstrate some of the progress by the board:
GAME-WIDE ACTION PLAN TO TACKLE DISCRIMINATION
- The ECB has made observations on the progress made against the Game-wide Action Plan and the 12 commitments the entire game made last November to promote equity, diversity and inclusion at all levels.
- This includes improvements in the way discrimination can be reported, increases in ethnic diversity in both boys and girls’ talent pathways with further action to remove barriers, the rollout of education across the cricket network, and significant increases in gender and ethnic diversity on County Boards.
- The report suggests that 4,500 people associated with ECB since January 2022, have completed anti-discrimination training. This includes 97% of ECB employees.
- In terms of increasing diversity, 27% of boys’ Academy players between ages 15-18 are from ethnically diverse backgrounds, up from 16% in 2017.
THE ECB’S EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (EDI) PLAN
- The ECB’s two-year plan launched last year with a focus on four key areas: empowering people, building diverse teams, developing inclusive environments and leading with accountability.
- Across those areas the board has committed to deliver 12 key actions by the end of 2023. The report highlights the steps taken so far – including reviewing and improving ECB policies to become more inclusive, establishing game-wide communities for under-represented groups, and ensuring fair recruitment – as well as areas of focus over the coming year.
COMPREHENSIVE ACTION ACROSS CRICKET
- The third document focuses on other work happening across the game to deliver change outside of these plans. Some of this work to get a wider variety of people involved in the sport has been under way for several years through the Inspiring Generations strategy for cricket in England and Wales, while some has been expanded or accelerated over the past year.
- Progress over the past year includes continuing growth in women’s and girls’ teams with a 75% increase in Women and Girls’ team in England and Wales since 2019 and 12% more clubs offering women a chance to play Cricket since 2019.
- The report also suggests progress in terms of ethnicity with 26,819 people from South Asian and Ethnic descent engaging in ECB’s core city activities this year and 33% of ECB coaching course participants being from these communities.
The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) – established by the ECB to examine questions of equity in relation to race, gender and class within cricket, and to provide recommendations on what further action the ECB and the wider game needs to take to make cricket a game for everyone – is expected to report early in the new year.
