The England & Wales Cricket Board has been accused of lacking “moral backbone” over its failure to call out Ian Botham’s rejection of last year’s damning discrimination report.
In a scathing assessment published in June, the Independent Commission on Equity in Cricket found “racism, class-based discrimination, elitism and sexism” to be “widespread and deep rooted” within the sport.
The ECB accepted the majority of the report’s 44 recommendations in September, with chairman Richard Thompson issuing and unreserved apology.
However, Botham, the former England captain and now chair of Durham, called the report “nonsense” and “a complete and utter waste of money”.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee meeting to follow up the review on Tuesday morning, Thompson said he had telephoned Botham to discuss his comments and did not agree with them.
ICEC chair Cindy Butts, however, questioned why the game’s governing body had offered no public criticism.
“I was disappointed that the ECB didn’t call out Lord Botham,” Butts told the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee. “[He is] chair of a first-class cricket county, his words carry weight and the ECB didn’t see fit to come out and say: ‘This is wrong’.
“I think that not only did they stay quiet, they resisted calls from stakeholders and people who were concerned about Mr Botham’s comments.
“They chose to stay silent and I think they should have had a moral backbone on this issue. And there are other issues, issues of cultural salience, where I think it is right and proper that they speak up and speak out, loudly and clearly.”
Botham had also insisted that he had not been approached to give evidence to the ICEC, a claim Butts refuted in a letter to The Times newspaper last year, suggesting he did not reply to their invitation to do so.
On Tuesday, she continued: “There are a number of untruths he spoke about the report but the most disappointing thing for me is that Lord Botham is the chair of a first-class county.
“What confidence do those within the country who may suffer racism, sexism, class-based discrimination have if they are subject to discrimination in coming forward and being able to talk about their experience?
“I was personally disappointed, not least because he’s a sporting hero of mine. The impact Lord Botham had on me as a young working class woman growing up in Shepherds Bush was really quite profound."
Both Thompson and ECB chief executive Richard Gould have taken up their posts within the last 18 months, having previously worked together at Surrey, and their responses to the ICEC report has been broadly welcomed.
On the subject of Botham’s comments, Thompson said: "I guess the ECB could have taken one or two views over that, my feeling was that we're trying to reconcile, we're trying to move forward and heal.
"Lord Botham is entitled to his views, I didn't agree with them. I made it very clear to him I didn't agree with them. But we live in a democracy and he's allowed to say those things.
"I could see what Durham were doing as a county and we're happy to share their EDI reports, their action plans, and it was pretty clear that Durham were doing a very good job of reaching communities, reaching all sorts of minorities that other counties weren't reaching.
"So I think whatever Lord Botham said it wasn't representative of what Durham were doing as a club."
