ECB points ‘unreserved apology’ as ICEC report reveals deep-rooted discrimination inside English cricket
The management of the ECB has issued an unreserved apology to “anyone who has ever been excluded from cricket or made to feel like they don’t belong”, and has promised to “use this moment to reset cricket”, within the wake of the hard-hitting findings of the long-awaited Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report, printed on Tuesday.
The 317-page report, titled “Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket”, options proof from greater than 4000 individuals, together with gamers, coaches, directors and followers, and drills deep into the game’s historic structural inequalities – with particular emphasis on its post-colonial heritage – to disclose a sample of deep-rooted discrimination inside the recreation, specifically on grounds of race, class and gender.
The fee was established in March 2021, in response to the homicide of George Floyd in police custody within the USA and the Black Lives Matter motion, which prompted quite a few claims of institutional racism inside English cricket, not least Azeem Rafiq’s revelations about his treatment at Yorkshire, which culminated in his emotional testimony earlier than a Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) choose commitee in November that yr.
“For many involved in the sport (including the ECB) the revelations and recommendations of this report will make for uncomfortable reading,” Cindy Butts, the fee’s chair, writes in her foreword to the report. And whereas she commends the present ECB administration for being “brave enough” to open up the game to such forensic impartial scrutiny, she additionally provides that earlier initiatives – not least the ECB’s “Clean Bowl Racism” marketing campaign, launched in 1999 – had finished little to deal with the “sirens of concern”.
A total of 44 recommendations have been outlined within the report, the primary of which is the ECB’s public apology for its earlier failures – as issued by Richard Thompson, the chair – which is described by the commissioners as an “essential first step … to help to rebuild trust and signal a clear future direction”.
“On behalf of the ECB and wider leadership of the game, I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has ever been excluded from cricket or made to feel like they don’t belong,” Thompson stated in an announcement. “Cricket should be a game for everyone, and we know that this has not always been the case. Powerful conclusions within the report also highlight that for too long women and Black people were neglected. We are truly sorry for this.
“This report makes clear that historic constructions and methods have failed to forestall discrimination, and highlights the ache and exclusion this has induced. I’m decided that this wake-up name for cricket in England and Wales shouldn’t be wasted. We will use this second to exhibit that it’s a recreation for all and we’ve got an obligation to place this proper for present and future generations.”
In an open letter to Butts, Thompson went on to thank the commission’s five-person secretariat – which also includes the England cricketer-turned-barrister Zafar Ansari – for his or her “rigour” and for holding up an “unfiltered mirror to all cricket in England and Wales”.
“I’m decided that this wake-up name for cricket … should not be wasted,” Thompson added. “We will use this second to reset cricket. This can’t and won’t be a fast repair – we should take the time to place in place significant structural reforms. As your report rightly factors out, cricket has been right here earlier than. This time our response might be totally different. Our response should be wide-ranging and long-term.”
The next step of the ECB’s response will be a three-month period of consideration, with the ICEC’s 44 recommendations – many of which are multi-faceted and contain sub-recommendations – due to be discussed at both the professional and recreational levels of the game.
This consultation process will be led by Clare Connor, the ECB’s deputy chief executive, with the support of a sub-group of the ECB board including Baroness Zahida Manzoor, Pete Ackerley, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Sir Ron Kalifa, Richard Thompson and Richard Gould.
The ECB acknowledged in its statement that some reforms can be “applied swiftly”, and that others are achievable under the current framework of cricket but will require “time and funding over the approaching months and years”.
Others, nonetheless – maybe most importantly the call for women’s cricketers to achieve equal pay at home degree by 2029 and at worldwide degree by 2030 – would require “elementary, longer-term adjustments to cricket in England and Wales, and its funding mannequin”.
The report also recommends the establishment of a new independent regulatory body, in light of persistent criticism of the sport’s existing disciplinary processes – such as those raised at the select committee hearings, and at the subsequent Cricket Discipline Commission hearing into Yorkshire’s dressing-room culture, the sanctions for which are due to be revealed later on Tuesday.
“The ECB’s twin roles of promoter and regulator have the potential to offer rise to conflicts of curiosity,” the report states. “The phrase ‘marking your personal homework’ was usually utilized in proof to us.”
Separately, Marylebone Cricket Club – for hundreds of years probably the most highly effective physique in world cricket and nonetheless thought of, by way of the grandeur of Lord’s, to be the sport’s religious house – comes in for significant criticism.
The report recommends that the venue’s hosting of annual fixtures between Eton and Harrow, and Oxford and Cambridge, should be ended after 2023, and replaced with a national finals’ days for state school Under-15 competitions for boys and girls, and a similar event for men’s and women’s university teams. The commission also expressed “alarm” that the England’s women had never yet played a Test at Lord’s, adding: “The ‘house of cricket’ continues to be a house principally for males.”
Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, reiterated that work was already underway to make English cricket more inclusive, including an increase in funding for the African-Caribbean Engagement Programme for young Black cricketers and increased provision of cricket in state schools, and was grateful for the report’s assessment that “inexperienced shoots of progress” are already visible. However, he also acknowledged that the governing body “must go additional and sooner in our efforts”.
“Making cricket extra inclusive and reflective of the communities it serves is my primary precedence,” Gould said. “This can’t and won’t be a fast repair. We are dedicated to taking the time to work with everybody within the sport, and particularly with leaders of cricket’s golf equipment and establishments, to place in place reforms which are wide-ranging, long-term and significant. We ought to view this as a once-in-a-generation alternative to revive belief within the recreation we love.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket