Leadership of Scottish cricket engulfed in racism scandal

STIRLING, Scotland: The leadership of Scottish cricket was found to be institutionally racist by an independent review, dealing another major blow to the sport after a similar scandal in the English game. The review was published Monday following a seven-month investigation sparked by allegations from Scotland’s all-time leading wicket-taker, Majid Haq, and his former teammate, Qasim Sheikh. It found that governing body Cricket Scotland failed in 29 out of 31 indicators of institutional racism set out by a consultancy firm leading the investigation.

The body only partially passed the other two tests and there were 448 examples of institutional racism. Hundreds of people came forward to recount their experiences as part of the investigation. From those conversations, 68 individual concerns have been referred for further investigation, including 31 allegations of racism against 15 people, two clubs and one regional association.

The allegations include racial abuse, the use of inappropriate language, favoritism toward white children from public schools, and a lack of a transparent selection process. An interim report in April revealed that some incidents had been referred to police. One individual has appeared in court as a result.