In March 2021 the English and Wales Cricket Board asked an independent panel to examine discrimination and inequity in cricket in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and a consequent renewed focus on the Black Lives Matter movement.
Eight months later the former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq gave testimony to the culture, media and sport select committee about abuse he said he had endured in the sport which threw the issue further into the spotlight and led to the Icec receiving so much evidence it delayed their report by several months.
Across 317 pages of its landmark report, Icec warns that racism is “entrenched in English cricket”, says that women and women’s teams are “frequently demeaned, stereotyped and treated as second-class”, and tells the ECB board that it must “urgently address deep rooted and widespread institutional, structural and interpersonal discrimination across the game”.
Correct. The report, Holding Up A Mirror to Cricket, says the sport is “elitist and exclusionary”, with those from lower-class backgrounds often facing barriers they cannot overcome as “private school and ‘old boys’ networks’ and cliques permeate the game to the exclusion of many”.