England captain Ben Stokes said Tuesday he is "deeply sorry" to learn of the scale of discrimination in the sport after a damning report revealed "widespread" racism, sexism and classism in the game.
His comments followed the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC), set up by the England and Wales Cricket Board, publishing its much-anticipated report, Holding Up a Mirror to Cricket.
The commission makes 44 recommendations, including that the board makes an "unqualified public apology" for its failings. The ICEC was established in 2021 in the wake of a racism scandal centred around the treatment of Pakistan-born bowler Azeem Rafiq at English county cricket club Yorkshire.
Of the more than 4,000 individuals interviewed for the ICEC report, 50 percent described experiencing discrimination in the previous five years, with the figures substantially higher for people from ethnically diverse communities.