The report from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket convicts the game in England of racism, sexism, classism, elitism and every other ism you can think of.
Which will come as no surprise to anyone who follows cricket.
There was a good feature and discussion of the report broadcast on Test Match Special during the lunch interval at Lord's today. Jon Agnew pointed out that the number of players from an Afro-Caribbean background who played for England in the 1980s led us to believe we were more inclusive than we really were.
Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, Philip Defreitas and the other Black cricketers he played with and against were first-generation immigrants: they had learnt to play the game in the Caribbean, When they retired there were few British-born players with their heritage to replace them.
The most telling comment I saw today was on Twitter.
Somerset County Cricket Club - and all power to them for doing so - sent a tweet saying:
There is no place for discrimination of any kind in cricket.
Then someone replied pointing out that the county's last state-schooled debutant was Jack Leach in 2010.
You can download the ICEC report and its 44 recommendations from the commission's website.
Just imagine the talent pool we could tap into, if the game was more inclusive. I presume kids are going in to soccer and basketball, rather than cricket?
ReplyDeleteI remember a discussion on TMS about the outreach work done by counties, this was pre Chance to Shine. Vic Marks was chairman of Somerset at the time (Educated at Blundell's School, boarding fees £38,985 p.a.), he gave one of the most half-arsed mealy-mouthed responses I've ever heard. Talking in vague terms about going around the state schools in the county and 'introducing kids to the game' and after that it was up to them as to whether they took it forward. There is no serious roll out of the game in state schools (i.e. creating proper facilities, competent coaching and a full card of fixtures), and no scouting, talent ID as you'd expect it. Chance to Shine may indeed produce impressive stats, but one coaching session a year in one school constitutes meaningful success to them. Cricket will remain very classist and exclusive until state secondary schools provide proper coaching and a minimum of 10 fixtures a season to every year group.
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