Black and ethnic minority Bristol amateur league cricketers “face constant abuse and racism on the field and have done for many years by officials. the opposition teams and their supporters”, a bombshell report has found. Players have been asked to show their passports to prove they live in England while umpires told some to stop talking in their first language or “the game would be called off” because they might be cheating, it reveals.
Black and Asian teams have also been advised to “create their own leagues” because “English teams don’t like playing with them”. The city’s mayoral Commission on Racial Equality (CoRE) launched an investigation into the local grassroots game in Bristol and the West after former Yorkshire cricketer and whistleblower Azeem Rafiq gave damning testimony to Parliament about institutional racism.
CoRE unearthed a “rotten culture” and sent its shocking findings to the Independent Commission on Equity in Cricket (ICEC) in response to a call for evidence. The ICEC’s report, published on Tuesday (June 27) following a two-year inquiry, has sent shockwaves around the establishment after it concluded that racism, sexism, elitism and classism were “widespread” in the sport.
