Report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket says racism is "entrenched" in English cricket; ICEC has recommended a fundamental overhaul of women's players pay structure, an action plan to revive Black cricket, and that the ECB establish a new independent regulatory body
Wednesday 28 June 2023 16:17, UK
Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton spoke to Sky Sports News, reflecting on the ICEC's report into English cricket that found the game deep-rooted with widespread institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination...
"It was a pretty damning report. Sexism, racism, classism, elitism.
"I guess cricket, unfortunately, mirrors society. And that's what we see in our society, day in day out.
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"Cricket has come from that society; the powers that be, the administrators come from that society, and I think this report is a good time just to take stock and have a look at ourselves and our game and say, 'should we be better than that?' I think we should be and could be a lot better than that.
"The irony here being at Lord's this week is it's £180 a pop for a ticket and that's ruling a few people out that can come and do the things that we take for granted. Women's cricket, in 1934, England played their first Test match and yet they've never played a Test match here [at Lord's].
"This morning, and the last couple of days, I've felt sorry for and thought about the people that have been discriminated against.
"I've come from that area. I come from Ilford, I grew up in the streets near Valentines Park, around Ilford Cricket School, so I feel for those people. But I also feel for the people out there that are doing an incredible amount of hard work, that are going into state schools, that are going into deprived areas.
"There's Arfan Akram, that works with the Australian team here, what he's doing at Leighton Hub, and all the people that are doing a lot of hard work - they must look at that report that's come out and be incredibly deflated. For two reasons, because they hardly get a mention but also because the decision-makers above them, there's not enough diversity.
"When you're making the decisions, the people above, the power in the corridors of the ECB, that's where you need your diversity. And that's where you need to keep improving the system. We can all look at ourselves on the back of this report."
"There are a lot of recommendations in the report. The report is over 300 pages long.
"They're going to have to be focused as to the areas that they tackle, they won't be able to tackle everything immediately. If I was looking at the key areas, anything that reduces the cost of the game - tickets here [at Lord's], for example - but there's a very interesting chapter, chapter nine in the report, that talks about talent ID, the pathways and the cost of the game.
"If you're a parent of a boy or a girl starting out in the county pathways, the cost is immense - of kit, of training, of time. Only one county makes the pathways free.
"One of the key recommendations is to make those pathways free and I completely agree with that. I think it would be about £500,000 a county [to do that] but they'll have to find that money.
"And then, another key recommendation is to not have any representative cricket until 14, so that some boy or girl is not travelling from U11s at Middlesex all the way to Suffolk on a Sunday.
"Imagine if you're a single-parent family, you simply can't do that - so it kind of entrenches advantages. The recommendation is to keep cricket as broad as possible until 14, with just regional games, get as many people into those pathways as you can and you only start to narrow it down from 15 onwards, when it's clear who are going to be the better players to move into the elite game.
"Anything that reduces the cost of the game, that allows a broader socio-economic input into those pathways, must be a good thing."
