Former Cricket Scotland chair Tony Brian has launched a damning criticism of sportscotland and its role in the publication of the “deeply flawed” investigation that found Scottish cricket’s governing body to be institutionally racist.
The Changing the Boundaries report, published last July, was carried out by the Plan4Sport consultancy at the behest of sportscotland following allegations of racism within the game made by two former Scotland players, Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh.
The report defined 448 instances of alleged institutional racism and prompted the resignation en masse of the Cricket Scotland board – that Brian had stood down from on grounds of ill health a few months earlier – on the eve of its publication.
The former chair, however, believes the report and the manner in which the investigation was executed was not independent, sufficiently comprehensive and prejudged the existence of a racism problem in Scottish cricket.
Brian believes the findings have unnecessarily sent the sport into crisis and has called upon for a fresh investigation into the report and how it was carried out in the hope that Cricket Scotland can be removed from the special measures imposed on it by sportscotland and, ultimately, to have the tag of being an “institutionally racist” organisation wiped clean.
He said: “We now know that sportscotland’s so-called ‘independent’ report was flawed from its inception and a gross waste of large amounts of public money.
“The results of Freedom of Information requests and in-depth analysis of the report and its methodology now show clearly that it was a deeply flawed report with a pre-determined outcome conducted by ill-resourced and conflicted reviewers who failed to undertake proper forensic investigation or even to speak to many relevant individuals.”
The key points claimed by Brian include:
- Plan4Sport was not independent or impartial. They were an existing service provider to sportscotland and thus had a conflict of interest.
- The reviewers failed to interview key individuals – including former head coaches and CEOs - and the views of those who had given information which conflicted with the predetermined outcome were given insufficient weight.
- Cricket Scotland and the individuals criticised in the report had no opportunity to review or challenge the evidence used by, or the findings of, the review, which contravenes natural justice.
- The so-called 448 examples of breaches of those criteria have never been validated, published or seen by Cricket Scotland or anyone outside of Plan4sport (including sportscotland).
In response to Brian’s claims, a sportscotland spokesperson said: “That people still refuse to accept the findings of Changing The Boundaries is a cause for concern. The denial of racism is a barrier to racial equity and is doing further damage to the sport that so many people in communities across the country love.
“The findings of the Changing The Boundaries report were accepted in full by the previous Cricket Scotland Board who apologised multiple times for the racism and discrimination problems within the sport. The governing body is now fully committed to implementing all recommendations contained in the report and we will continue to support them through the rebuilding process.
“We have full confidence in how the Changing The Boundaries review was carried out and will not be conducting any further reviews.”
