‘What’s next?’ - how ECB’s widespread racism and sexism is not news but the ICEC’s recommendations should be

The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket released a report on the ECB which stated that the England and Wales Cricket Board has widespread problems of racism, sexism, classism and elitism - struggling to see the news here.

One only has to quickly flick the television screen on during an England cricket match to see the general demographic of those who attend fixtures and, more notably those who play and coach in those matches.

While the 317-page report is a damning, disheartening and disappointing indictment of the situation in English and Welsh cricket, what is overwhelmingly more striking is that there is no surprise factor.

Briefly summing up the recently published report, the ICEC stated that ‘structural and institutional racism’ continues to exist; women are treated as ‘subordinate’ to men at all levels of the sport; the prevalence of ‘elitism and class-based discrimination’ in cricket; ‘black cricket’ has been failed and a plan must be developed to revive it; many who experience discrimination do not report it due to a distrust in the authorities and umpires regularly ignore abuse and dismiss complaints in both the professional and recreational games.

The final point of this conclusion is what has shocked me the most. It seems ridiculous to suggest that phrases such as ‘black cricket has been failed’ or ‘women are subordinate’ (paraphrasing of course…) are not what’s most eye-catching.

But when we look at the make-up of both the men and women’s England squads and take into consideration that it took until 1999 for women to become Marylebone Cricket Club members (Lord’s members essentially) then we cannot be taken aback that a report published in the wake of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements details that this discrimination also exists in one of the most historically colonial, male and privately-educated sports this country plays (now that I say it out loud - wow, yes, I really am shocked!).

In fact the report even denotes to the imperialist past of the sport saying that in 1906, the Bishop of Calcutta J EC Weldone (who schooled at Eton and was the ex-headmaster of Harrow) declared: “(in the) final and robustly imperial decades of the 19th century” it was above all on the cricket field that public school boys were “taught the virtues of loyalty, obedience, discipline and conformity which were held to be the characteristic virtues of the English ‘gentlemen’.”

But what is more heart-breaking is to think that those figures who are meant to be the upholders of cricket law are those almost facilitating the problems with their refusal to address and act on the complaints they receive.

If a culture exists where one’s first port of call for on-pitch disputes are those most likely to disregard them, how are we expected to create ‘a game for all’?

Of course, it goes without saying that even if the reports on racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are not surprising, we should not still be having to write over 300 pages on how to best combat the issue in 2023.

When women were allowed to become members of the MCC in 1999, Tony Lewis, the then president of the MCC, said to the ten females who were permitted in the first wave: “I hope you enjoy your membership. Don’t relax too much, we will need your experiences and help as the culture of this great club changes.”

And in case there was to be any doubt of possible condescension, Lewis wanted to assure the women they had ‘not been pawns in the popular game of social and political correctness. The unanimous thinking of the committee was simply this… we could not claim to be a great cricket club unless we had a women’s team and women members. A simple equation’.

The first MCC women’s team then played their first ever match later that year, but notably not at Lord’s.

23 years on from these comments and what has the MCC learnt? Evidently not enough, if anything. While the MCC is just one club of many under the ECB umbrella, as it encompasses the popular thought of Home of Cricket, it should be an upstanding pillar of the values cricket wishes to publicise - a point of reference from which others can follow.

Just last year NationalWorld wrote about the elitism Lord’s encourages through its ticket pricing and here we are now reading through a comprehensive summons of how cricket has been a sport for the few and not the many.

I could write for hours and hours, weeks even, on the gender pay gap within cricket or on the necessity to increase the number of Test matches women play a year and the fact that all of their matches should be played on ICC Test approved venues such as Edgbaston and The Oval as well as Lord’s.

I could also very easily (although with less empathetic understanding) argue for the remaining months of the year on how the disparities of racial diversities at the top of cricket is injuriously and destructively impacting those hoping to rise up through the ranks down in the grassroot arenas of the sport.

But this is not the story. Not today. The story for me is, what’s next?

This report is not publishing any new revelations for the 4,000 plus who shared their experiences. It’s also unlikely to be much of an epiphany for anyone else involved in cricket who can see it first-hand in almost all walks of the sport.

So to stop anyone else from experiencing racism, sexism or classism let us focus on the what’s next factor.

Sport is supposed to be an inclusionary activity - a pursuit that fills one with gleeful endorphins, a venture meant to improve one’s mental and physical well being. It is not a place that one is meant to feel isolated, belittled or demeaned.

So I implore not just the ECB, but governing bodies such as the FA, RFU and others around the country to act now before sport retracts even further into this exclusionary, patriarchal and dictatorial abyss.