England’s cricketing authorities must implement report’s blueprint to tackle discrimination, says expert

LONDON: Those in charge of cricket in England must implement guidelines laid out in a damning report into discrimination in the sport released this week if they are to properly tackle a lack of diversity, a leading sports lawyer has said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board apologized “unreservedly” on Tuesday after the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket released its evidence of racism, misogyny, and elitism being entrenched in the sport.

The report found cricket boards in England had failed to prevent “structural and institutional racist, sexist and class-based discrimination,” and the ECB acknowledged the need for change.

The recent probe followed a similar report in 1999, and the fact there was a need for further examination 24 years later — which contained almost identical recommendations — showed things had not improved over the last two decades, lawyer Yasin Patel told Arab News.

He said: “The public apology, that one is forthcoming, so that’s a start, but words alone won’t be enough.

“They will (also) need to have equal pay for women, the talent pathways in the school system. That’s the biggest factor; they’re going to have to change all that.”

Patel added that this meant not just the cricketing authorities, but also local authorities, education officials, and the UK’s Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, all of which had to look at what they could do to tackle discrimination, and not make it about “filling a position, but actually doing what the recommendations say.”

The class system in England and how it acts as a barrier to young people getting into cricket was a major theme within the report, and is one that requires a proper funding strategy from the ECB to overcome.

Patel said: “That’s