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.
Read more: Woman set to be in charge of Bristol's education warns she 'won't celebrate barrier schools'
CoRE’s report, released shortly afterwards, paints an equally damning picture of the game locally. The organisation spoke to players and the organisers of clubs and leagues to establish how serious the problem was and how seriously it was being taken.
It found there was a “creeping and deeper malaise across the game at every level, affecting people from all minoritised communities who spoke to us about leaving the game completely”. The report said: “The game is clearly worse off because players of minority ethnic backgrounds have not felt safe coming forward when faced with racism, bullying or harassment.
“There is an overriding sense that non-white clubs are treated differently to predominantly white clubs.” Players told CoRE that issues were “brushed under the carpet for white clubs, but others (Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic clubs) must follow the rules exactly”.
“They report a palpable sense of unfairness and injustice illustrated according to the testimonies we heard by the fact that they are more likely to [receive] bans/relegations compared to non-white clubs,” the report said. “They report that when racist incidents are reported, they are told to ‘keep quiet if they want to keep playing’ – with threats of being kicked out of the league (direct intimidation and bullying).”
Some were regularly told off for “being aggressive and loud” when celebrating a wicket because of a lack of cultural understanding by umpires, it said. The report said: “People are leaving cricket due to the stress as well as mental ill-health and effect on their wellbeing, from the persistent highly racialised microaggressions to overt racism.
“People do not feel comfortable putting their children in the game as they don't want them to face the same issues.” The report said that when CoRE put the anonymised testimony to local and regional cricket boards, “many around the table were shocked at our findings”.
But it said pronouncements from national leadership and governing bodies at county level were not filtering down to the recreational game or changing its culture. “It was therefore unsurprising to CoRE that some participants sought to minimise the prevalence of the issue,” the report said.
“Comments were made that the findings are ‘very negative’ and are more than likely ‘genuine misunderstandings’. While some went on to say that they acknowledged the ‘presence of racist players’, it is evident that there was a lack of understanding of systemic issues impacting individual players and cricket more broadly.
“When the conversation turned to how the game tackles systematic racism, we came away with the sense that they were (perhaps unintentionally) pushing the responsibility onto the ‘BAME’ clubs themselves by, for example, asserting that, ‘clubs must take the initiative’ and that, ‘there is a “mind shift” to be made in some of the Asian clubs’. Whilst there was a general agreement on the existence of racism in cricket, there is still disagreement on its prevalence.
“Some leaders are still too quick to assign it as ‘banter’ and say that ‘most of this comes from outside the city’.” It said many players were “too scared to say anything because there was a fear that they will be kicked out of a league or… victimised for coming forward”.
In one case, a body that deals specifically with racist incidents could not take up one report from a player because “they were threatened by officials in the league” and that if it was pursued they would be “kicked out of the league”. The report said: “Players generally talked about being threatened, ‘called slurs at the game by the crowd’, being told that white players ‘don’t like it when you don’t speak English’, being made fun of because of the way they look or ‘the languages they were speaking’.
“In one incident, ‘players had to show their passports’ to prove residency, something the predominantly white club did not have to do. There were accounts of people being told by umpires and/or officials that they cannot speak in their first language.
“A member of leadership mentioned that ‘if people speak another language they may be communicating (illegal) tactics which the umpires cannot police’ but of course, players speak their own language in international games. In another incident a member of leadership allegedly said, ‘Why don’t you lot [Black and Asian teams] have your own league? The English teams do not like playing with Black/Asian teams so they should create their own league’.”
The report added: “Complaints handling and procedures seem to sit at the centre of a rotten culture. According to players, they are wholly inadequate and unfit for purpose.
“The lack of understanding among some of the leadership we met, of the impact of systemic racism, is notable.” As part of its work, CoRE collaborated with cricket organisations including Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation (GCF), Bristol & District Cricket Association and West of England Premier League to establish an equality, diversity inclusion working group led by GCF.
CoRE's report is here.
