Azeem Rafiq: How does cricket solve its diversity problem?

Azeem Rafiq’s testimony of racism in cricket has led to a period of soul-testing in the sport – which Tom Harrison, CEO of the Cricket Board of England and Wales (ECB), says must now create a “sense of belonging” for everyone.

One of the ECB’s attempts to address the well-known problem of under-representation of this group of players in professional games was the South Asia Action Plan (SAAP), launched in 2018.

The ECB said There were about a million South Asian cricket fans in England and Wales, but the plan was to get more of them to play, support and participate in the sport.

While some game players simply consider it a “tick-boxing exercise,” is this a genuine foundation for building the future? And how much progress has been made in the three years since its launch?

BBC Sport evaluates the statistics to see what has changed, while hearing what people think about SAAP’s success or others.

What are the key statistics?

One statistic repeatedly quoted in recent days – Rafiq and others to emphasize the diversity of the game – is that although about third of the recreational cricket players are South Asians, this only counts 4% of those who play cricket professionally.

Here’s a little more detail about those numbers.

In 2018, South Asian players represented

• 30% of amateur players,
• 15% of the players in the province’s age group,
• 11% of County Academy players and
• 4% of first-class county players.

Since then, the share of South Asian amateur players has dropped to 28 percent. Currently, 33% of amateur players have an ethnically diverse background.

In response to questions from BBC Sport, the ECB says it had “started” to see an increase in the number of South Asian players in the county’s academy systems from 11% in 2018 to 17% in 2019-2020.

And that said about 10% of first-class county players are ethnically diverse.

The PCA said its latest membership survey showed that 13.44% of contracted professional players in circuit cricket throughout the 2021 season were ethnically diverse and 5.17% of contracted professional players in the female game.

However, neither organization was able to provide an up-to-date figure on South Asian representation in professional games.

Why was the plan launched?

The rationale for the action plan was to address the observed breakdown of cricket in the South Asian community.

ECB President Tom Harrison said at the time: “Although we have long recognized our passion for the game in the South Asian communities in the UK and had the best of intentions, we never fully understood how to work with the South Asian communities. The report gives us a roadmap to to amend. “

The President of New Yorkshire, Lord Patel, helped launch the plan as the independent director of the ECB.

He added at the time: “The passion for cricket in Britain’s South Asian communities is still high, but more than 50 years later there is still so much untapped potential. This plan will help change that – from today.”

He called it once a generation an opportunity to get Asian communities involved and focus on four goals.

• Create more opportunities for South Asian communities to get involved in cricket, whether it’s playing, supporting or working
• Remove barriers to the participation of South Asian players and fans in cricket
• Build strong relationships between South Asian communities, the ECB, provinces, clubs and the cricket network
• Use cricket to make a positive difference to communities

An 11-point action plan was developed covering facilities, formats, children and schools, women and girls, talent identification, development and retention, financial support, elite coaching, game day experience, communication and cricket workforce.

Here’s more about some of these areas:

Identifying and retaining talent

A survey to publicize the South Asia Action Plan found that 50% of respondents felt that more “scouts” were needed to watch non-traditional cricket environments, such as park leagues.

The ECB announced that it had started piloting the “Community Talent Champions” program in cooperation with the National Asian Cricket Council.

Three counties – Yorkshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire – have taken part in the pilot.

The ECB told BBC Sport: “Five Community Talent Champions have been recruited from three counties to test new ways to find the English stars of the future – identifying and developing potential players from different and non-traditional cricket paths and not having the opportunity to be seen in traditional clubs and league structures. expand to other cities and regions on the basis of what the pilots have learned. “

In addition, it said the district partnership agreement requires all first-class counties to set up a patrol system that supports the identification of players on the path. A new talent development framework for boys and girls has also recently been launched and the T20 City Cup has been refocused as a tool for identifying young people in urban areas.

Services

Studies show that the single biggest barrier to South Asian participation is the availability of space in urban areas.

The ECB set a short-term target for 2018 and 2019 of creating one to three urban cricket centers, installing 100 lawns in urban areas and installing or upgrading 25 lawns in urban areas.

The first two of these have been achieved. However, ambition has not been achieved for grasslands.

In Yorkshire, zoning permission has been granted for the city center, which will be built at Bradford’s Parkside Sports Center in West Bowling, which is scheduled to open in summer 2022.

By 2024, the goal is to create 20 city cricket centers, install 1,000 non-grass fields, and install or upgrade 100 lawns by 2024.

Training

In 2018, less than 5% of the coaching staff in first-class provinces were South Asian, and the ECB was unable to provide the latest data on this.

The ECB said a lot of work is being done to support more coaches from South Asia and other ethnically diverse backgrounds to achieve their Advanced and Specialist qualifications through scholarships and mentoring programs.

In addition to mentoring and training programs, it added “28% of our most recent Specialist (Level 4) course and 21% of our Advanced (Level 3) intake from an ethnically diverse background.

Anti – discrimination work

Unconscious misguided training was given to the entire county Academy staff in 2018 and 2019.

In cooperation with the PCA, the anti-racism training program was delivered to professional cricketers, academy players, coaches and support staff during 2021.

The ECB said that “more training will be developed with the PCA to test the application of learning.”

Cricket workforce

In 2018, less than 10% of the cricket workforce was of South Asian origin and one first-class county leader was from South Asia.

Rooney’s rule was introduced for the appointment of an ECB coach, and grants and scholarships have been introduced to support coach development.

7% of the ECB’s own workforce is South Asian, compared with 3% in 2017-2018.

The governing body said it would conduct a “game-wide census to understand the demographic structure of the cricket workforce” and will receive updated data in early 2022.

A new County Governance Code has also been introduced to “ensure proper representation of underrepresented communities in decision-making roles in first-class and recreational play.”

What do those in cricket say?

Ijaz Khan, a cricket coach from Bradford, told BBC Sport: “I’m going to be brutally honest, I think it’s a forum, it’s a checkbox exercise, that’s my experience of it.”

Khan, who recently attended the action plan meeting, said: “I’ve been to open workshops and we’re talking about things, we seem to be talking about the same things in 12 months, and in 12 months there has been no progress. I’m not even saying it’s one step forward, two steps back. , I think it’s a bit symbolic. “

Vikram Banerjee, The ECB ‘s Chief Strategy Officer, who is leading the South Asia Action Plan, told the BBC’ s Sports Desk Podcast:

“There are really good people in Krket and all sports who do a really good job in this state. That should not be forgotten.

“While the next couple of weeks, months will be uncomfortable, one way to look at it is that we have a real opportunity. Silver Mountain has the opportunity to use the power of sport as a sport. To speed this up, learn from it.”

Former bowler of West India Tino paras, who played in Yorkshire and Hampshire, told BBC Sport that more work is needed to improve diversity.

“The only fact is, how many black players do you see in County Cricket? You don’t see just any,” he said. “There are so many stories in England about black cricketers who have suffered.

“I think the ECB needs to get back to Brixton, Croydon and those players and make the game more inclusive and understand that it’s not a boys’ club. Cricket is a thing of the past when it was an institution for high school boys. and low-income boys should play football and so on. “

Last week, representatives from the ECB, the Professional Cricketers’ Association, the Marylebone Cricket Club, the National Counties Cricket Association and the First-Class and Recreational County Cricket Network pledged “concrete steps” to make cricket “more transparent, inclusive and effective”. Rafiq and other victims of racism.

Harrison He was asked what made this action plan – which is to cover 12 areas – different from the previous ones.

“I think the proof is in how we deliver it. This is the first time the game has come together to take such urgent and direct action,” he replied.

These latest plans will be added to the 11-point South Asia Action Plan, which sets long-term goals until 2024, and to the six priorities of the Inspiring Generations strategy launched in 2019, “to increase cricket in England and Wales between 2020 and 24”.

But Harrison said what has happened in recent weeks “clearly shows the distance we need to travel to make cricket the truly comprehensive sport we want it to be.”

The racism crisis in English cricket has led to new efforts by the game to better reflect the wider society, but it has also raised tighter controls to strengthen its existing plans to improve inclusion and diversity.