Racism, sexism, classism and elitism are “widespread” in English and Welsh cricket, according to a long-awaited independent report.
The Independent Justice in Cricket Commission (ICEC) has presented its findings from a two-year investigation.
The ICEC made 44 recommendations, including that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) make an unreserved public apology for its failings.
ECB President Richard Thompson said: “We will use this moment to restart cricket.”
ICEC was announced by the ECB in March 2021 as a result of global movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too.
It launched an online call for evidence in November of that year, receiving 4,156 responses. In March 2022, a call for written evidence resulted in more than 150 responses.
Among those to give evidence are England men’s team captain Ben Stokes, women’s team captain Heather Knight, former men’s team captain Joe Root, World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan and Azim Rafiq, a former Yorkshire player and forward of racism alerts.
In a damning 317-page report called Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket, the ICEC concluded that:
- “Structural and institutional racism” persists in the game
- Women are treated as “subordinates” to men at all levels of sport
- “Elitism and class discrimination” prevail in cricket.
- Black cricket has failed and the ECB needs to come up with a plan to revive it
- Many who have experienced discrimination do not report it because they distrust the authorities
- Referees routinely overlook abuse and dismiss complaints in both the professional and recreational game
“It remains a stark reality that cricket is not a ‘game for everyone’ and it is absolutely essential that the work required to achieve this ambition begins immediately,” wrote ICEC chairman Cindy Butts.
“Make no doubt, what is needed now is leadership. I very much hope that the recommendations we make in this report will be taken up and taken forward by the ECB and everyone else in leadership positions.”
The report did praise the ECB for being “brave” enough to open itself up to independent scrutiny.
Thompson, who became ECB president last September, issued an “unreserved” apology.
“Cricket should be a game for everyone and we know that hasn’t always been the case,” he said. “The report’s powerful findings also highlight that for too long women and black people have been overlooked. We are really sorry about that.
“This report makes clear that historical structures and systems have failed to prevent discrimination, and highlights the pain and exclusion this has caused.
“I am determined that this wake-up call for cricket in England and Wales must not be wasted. We will use this moment to show that this is a game for everyone and we have an obligation to get it right for current and future generations. “
The recommendations also include equalizing match fees between England’s women’s and men’s teams with immediate effect, the ECB reporting on the state of cricket equity every three years and removing the annual meetings between Eton and Harrow schools and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge from Gentlemen.
‘Cricket culture is rotten’
In light of the allegations made by former Yorkshire spinner Rafiq, the ECB published a plan to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination in November 2021.
The ICEC said the significant response it had received to its call for evidence was prompted by Rafiq’s appearance at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing in the same month when he called England cricket “institutionally racist”.
Of the respondents, 50% described experiencing discrimination in the past five years. The figures are higher for people from ethnically diverse communities: 87% of people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, 82% of people of Indian heritage and 75% of all black respondents.
“The persistence of interpersonal and structural racism in cricket is due, in our view, in part to the ECB’s failure to specifically and unequivocally name racism as a problem, at least until the recent crisis (and only then generally in relation to interpersonal and overt forms of racism) , the report said.
“Racism remains a widespread and serious problem in cricket in England and Wales and something that the ECB and the wider game must tackle urgently.”
In its evidence to the report, the ECB acknowledged a “lost generation” of black cricketers.
“Black adults do not play cricket in sufficient numbers to even be picked up by surveys that measure cricket participation,” the ICEC report said.
“A 2020 Sport England report found black participation so low as to be statistically irrelevant, clearly lower than in golf and tennis.”
The ICEC has recommended that the ECB undertake a “thorough review” of the decline of cricket in black communities over the next 12 months.
“Culture of sexism and misogyny”
While the report acknowledged “positive strides” made in the women’s game, it also highlighted the lack of representation of women in decision-makers, less media exposure and fewer opportunities to play on top-class courses for elite women, as and inequality in terms of gear and equipment available to women and girls.
The ICEC heard “evidence of a widespread culture of sexism and misogyny” and examples of men making unwanted and uninvited advances towards women.
The report was alarmed that England Women have never played a Test at Lord’s, while the “home of cricket” continues to host an annual school match between Eton and Harrow.
In terms of pay and investment, the women’s game receives a “disturbingly small amount” compared to the men’s game.
According to the report, an England women’s white-ball player receives a salary that is 20.6% of that of the male equivalent, and the allowance given to the women’s captain is 31% of that of the men’s.
Nationally, the average wage of a woman in a regional structure is 45% of that of a man in a first-class county, while in the Hundred the highest level of pay for women is £1,250 more than the lowest level for men.
Even when players are excluded, there is an 18.8% difference in average pay between female and male staff at the ECB.
The ICEC recommended a “fundamental change to the pay structure of professional female players”.
This includes immediate parity between men’s and women’s international match fees, overall equal pay at international level by 2030 and equal pay in the Hundred in 2025.
“Elitist and exclusionary”
The lack of cricket in government schools and the talent pathway structurally aligned with private schools is partly to blame for “elitism and class discrimination”, according to the report.
Around 58% of the men who will play for England in 2021 were privately educated, significantly more than the 7% of the general population who attended a private school.
To highlight the over-representation of privately educated people in the game, 42% of respondents to ICEC’s own survey went to private school.
The report also cited the costs of participating in talent pathways and “conflicts of interest and bias” by coaches as further barriers to player progression.
“The structure and operation of the talent pipeline remains a barrier to equality and the inclusion of gender, class and race,” the report said. “It reiterates and reinforces the wider structural inequalities that exist in cricket in England and Wales.”
ICEC recommendations that inter-county cricket should not start before the age of 14 and all access to a county talent development program should be free by 2025.
“We recommend that the entire structure of the talent pathway be overhauled to make it more meritocratic, inclusive, accountable, transparent and consistent,” the report said.