Ending discrimination in cricket won't be easy - it could take years to level the playing field
More than 4,000 people provided evidence to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket investigators, who reported that more than 80% of respondents with Asian heritage reported experiencing discrimination.
Tuesday 27 June 2023 22:51, UK
Away from the grandeur of Lord's and leaders of a sport deep-rooted in discrimination, cricket is trying to solve its diversity problem.
On a pitch in Stourbridge is just one solution.
A pathway into the professional game is being provided for British Asian players in a system found to be rife with inequalities and discrimination.
Players who question why their opportunities with professional sides proved short-lived are being given a platform to shine by the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA).
Games are secured against county clubs - like one on Tuesday against Worcestershire's 2nd XI - which was preceded by a dressing room discussion about the publication of the Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket report.
And they are reflecting - along with the rest of English cricket - on the findings of entrenched racism, sexism and elitism which leaned on research by SACA co-founder Tom Brown.
Seven players have already been picked up by counties since SACA started 18 months ago.
Ashane Wijesuriya is hoping to be the next - seven years after leaving Middlesex where he had been since the age of eight.
The 23-year-old doesn't detect racism overtly, but sees it as "subconscious" in the sport.
"When you're growing, when you're 10 when you're playing cricket, you don't really bat an eyelid at it," he told Sky News. "You think that's just another one of those things. But I think the older you get, you kind of slowly start to realise that's not okay.
"And you just slowly start to develop that act for picking up and stuff like that."
More than 4,000 people provided evidence to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket investigators, who reported that more than 80% of respondents with Asian heritage reported experiencing discrimination.
That could explain why the most recent data shows only 8% of men playing cricket professionally in England are Asian British and Black British, while 30% to 35% of adult recreational players are from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
Non-white players are either being disproportionately cast aside by counties or deciding the environment is too unwelcoming.
Mr Wijesuriya said: "I think the [South Asian Cricket] Academy has kind of shown exactly what has been missing in the professional game. We've now got seven playing graduates and two coaching graduates. It's showing the proof that there is something missing in the game."
This is something that could have been addressed at least 24 years ago, but the England and Wales Cricket Board failed to act on the warnings in a racism report it commissioned then.
And it means English cricket still seems entrenched in the last millennium - being too white, too loaded in favour of players from private schools and elite universities, and too much a game for men.
The ECB has apologised to anyone - and there are many - who have been victims of discrimination.
But even a day digesting the 44 recommendations has not prompted the simplest of commitments, like calling on Marylebone Cricket Club to end the privileged annual Eton-Harrow and Oxford-Cambridge matches at Lord's.
The colleges and universities didn't even respond to requests for comment from Sky News.
Cricket leaders are committed to being more open and welcoming across classes, races and genders.
Eradicating the hate and levelling the playing field could take years, with English cricket needing a reset after its racism reckoning.
Those on the pitch at Stourbridge will offer hope that players are not giving up. It's not for the money they are so desperate to make it as professionals. It's for the love of the game they want to play at the highest level possible.
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