Cricket has committed to a wide-ranging action plan to tackle racism and promote inclusion and diversity at all levels of the game. The plan has been developed jointly by the ECB, MCC, the PCA, NCCA Ltd, the First Class Counties, Women’s Regional Hosts and the Recreational County Cricket network, as a game-wide response to discrimination within the game.

While taking tangible and immediate action through the plan published recently by the ECB, cricket will continue to listen and learn from anyone who has experienced discrimination in the sport. Further work is being undertaken to examine these issues through the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket and ongoing investigations into racism allegations and the handling of complaints made by Azeem Rafiq and others. Cricket’s leaders will also consult with independent third-party organisations with significant expertise in resolving similar issues. The game expects to take further action based on the findings and recommendations that come out of these processes.

The measures agreed include a series of immediate changes as well as the instigation of a review period that will incorporate the work of the ICEC and other inquiries into discrimination in cricket.

The initial aims include:

Understanding and educating more

  • Adoption within three months of a standardised approach to reporting, investigating, and responding to complaints, allegations, and whistleblowing across the game.
  • Full promotion of the aims of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) through proactive engagement with its investigations and recommendations.
  • Ongoing EDI training for all those who work in cricket, including all staff, volunteers, recreational club officials, umpires, directors, and coaches.

Addressing dressing room culture

  • A full review of dressing room culture in all men’s and women’s professional teams, both domestic and international.
  • Delivery of a redesigned programme of player and coach education, addressing any gaps identified through the dressing room review.

Removing barriers in talent pathways

  • Action to aid progress into professional teams of people from diverse backgrounds (especially South Asian, Black and less privileged youngsters) through measures to address i) talent identification and scouting, ii) education and diversity of coaches and iii) targeted support programmes for players from diverse or under-privileged backgrounds.

Creating welcoming environments for all

  • A full-scale review, in advance of the 2022 season, into the detection, enforcement, and sanctions against discriminatory and abusive crowd behaviour at each of our professional cricket grounds.
  • Delivery of plans (tailored to local communities) to ensure professional cricket venues are welcoming to all, including provision of accessible seating, food and beverage offering catering to all faiths and cultures, and the availability of facilities such as multi-faith rooms and alcohol-free zones.
  • Upgraded education in recreational cricket to ensure players, volunteers and coaches understand and champion inclusion and diversity in the game.

Publishing localised EDI Action Plans within six months

The ECB kas published its 2021-2023 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan with clear actions and targets. The ECB will then work with any of its members who do not yet have an EDI plan in place to create (or revise) their own localised version within six months, with actions to include:

  • A commitment to best practice governance with targets for Board diversity (30% female, locally representative ethnicity by April 2022) and plans to increase diversity across the wider organisation. (Compliance will be subject to a “comply or explain” provision to ensure Counties can respect their own governance processes in making the required change).
  • The introduction of fairer recruitment processes through measures including the immediate adoption of anonymised recruitment tools for senior roles, open appointment processes for all roles and the use of balanced and diverse panels to assess interviews.
  • Every senior executive employed across the game will have personal EDI objectives as part of their annual performance targets, driving leadership accountability.

To be transparent and build trust, the game will provide regular updates on progress against delivery of the action plan and EDI goals.

To underpin the actions being taken across the cricket network, the ECB has committed to providing additional resources and take several further steps in support of consistent progress across the game. These have been agreed with the game and will include:

  • A review of governance and regulation in cricket to identify any opportunities to strengthen the structures and processes across the game
  • £25 million of strategic funding over five years in support of EDI actions
  • The formation of a new anti-discrimination unit, within six months, to ensure that the ECB has the right resources and capabilities to help tackle discrimination in all its forms and provide guidance to the wider game
  • The inclusion, with immediate effect, of EDI minimum standards for all venues
  • A link between funding and EDI minimum standards, including withholding central distributions where necessary to ensure all stakeholders meet agreed standards
  • Collaboration with Sport England to help the whole game to achieve the increased diversity of Boards

 

Somerset Cricket Foundation Managing Director, Jon Bendle has reinforced the Foundations backing to the ECB Action Plan. “There is no place for racism at Somerset Cricket Foundation or across the game as a whole,” he said. “The ECB’s Action Plan is a solid foundation on which to ensure that we all continue to educate ourselves to be better when it comes to issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.”

“Somerset Cricket Foundation is an anti-racist organisation and has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discriminative behaviour and will ensure all its programmes are fully inclusive, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or any other characteristic. We will develop a robust EDI Strategy to tackle this head-on by the end of March 2022, well within the ECB’s timeframe of six months, and our staff will take part in an awareness programme in the coming months to ensure we improve in close collaboration with the County Club”

“As individuals, Clubs, Schools and community groups within the recreational game, we all have a responsibility to ensure that we do whatever we can to eradicate prejudice from the game.”