Monday 15 June 2020 09:12, UK
Mark Butcher said cricket "cannot stand still" over racial issues as he assessed why the number of black players in county cricket has diminished.
Butcher's former Surrey team-mate Michael Carberry told Sky Sports News earlier this week that black cricketers feel like they risk their careers if they attempt to confront prejudice, and the ECB has responded to his comments by vowing to address any racism within the sport.
Former England batsman Butcher believes English cricket should be proud of how multicultural it is but says there must be greater representation among people of colour in senior roles.
"I would say cricket is as clean a game as any, the game is as multicultural as any - just look at the England team that won the World Cup. I think that is something to be proud of," Butcher, born to a Jamaican mother and English father, told Sky Sports News.
"But you cannot stand still and there are issues around race and participation, more structural issues, I suppose, that are not quite as straightforward.
"The number of black professional players is going down - some of it is structural, some of it generational. It is difficult to pin down the blame onto one particular faction.
"The removal of cricket from a number of state schools in the early '90s has played a huge part in how much exposure at a young age kids from an Afro-Caribbean background have.
"My grandparents came over from the Windrush so the generation after that were very much part of a Caribbean cricketing culture but move a couple of generations forward to kids born to parents who we born in the UK and cricket perhaps hasn't had the same generational pull.
"The growth in the women's game has grown by dint of the fact women and girls can see themselves in the coverage and the importance given to the sport.
"So if you don't have black coaches or people of colour making administrative decisions, if you don't hear their point of view, it perpetuates itself and you don't end up making any significant changes."
Sports stars have spoken frankly about the issues of racism that remain in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in Minneapolis last month after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Butcher says all sports must ask questions of themselves and said that cricket still has an issue with "throwaway remarks" about players of colour
"I'm sure cricket will look at itself and any sport that, in the light of the public reaction to events in the States, doesn't look at its governance and the way it seeks to promote would be daft. Keep your ears open and listen," added the Sky Sports presenter and commentator.
"Particularly in the recreational game or even in age-group cricket, [there is] people's language and the casual throwaway remarks about people's culture.
"Jofra Archer has had it recently with remarks that were so close to the mark of being overtly racist about him not wanting to play for England, being lazy, not getting the English culture, all types of tropes that you were hearing 20 or 30 years ago. They haven't gone away."
