The government could reduce its funding for cricket if the sport does not show it has made progress in eliminating racism.
The warning came as Azeem Rafiq, the former Yorkshire player who lifted the lid on institutional racism at the county and across the sport, claimed there are still some senior leaders in cricket who do not believe there is a problem with discrimination.
A report from the digital, culture, media and sport select committee in January — prompted by Rafiq’s allegations — said that cricket must clean up its act or face losing the public funding it receives from Sport England and risk having an independent regulator imposed on the sport.
In a statement issued by Department for Culture, Media and Sport on Thursday, the government supported the committee’s findings. “Public funding is already explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans — in cricket and beyond,” the DCMS statement read. “The government and Sport England has left the ECB in no doubt on the need to make progress in this regard.
“The government will continue to call in the ECB quarterly and track their progress in tackling racism and increasing diversity. We expect to see evidence of improvements across the sport and delivery on the ECB’s ambition to eradicate racism from cricket. However, if these changes are not made and implemented, the government reserves the right to intervene further. This has been made clear to the ECB and first-class counties.”
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Although Sport England funding represents a very small proportion of the ECB’s income — just over £2 million a year out of a total annual turnover of about £220 million — it would be hugely damaging to the reputation of the governing body to have this taken away.
Rafiq said in an interview with Times Radio that while he felt progress was being made at Yorkshire and that they were moving in the right direction under the leadership of Lord Patel, the new chairman, there are some in the sport who still do not believe that racism is an issue.
“The initial response from cricket, it saddens me a little bit to be honest,” Rafiq, 31, said. “I still feel a lot of leaders within cricket think that this is not as big as an issue as it is made out to be — from some of the words said by leaders in cricket. But from outside of cricket, there seems to be a lot more support and as you can see by the government’s response, a lot of people are on the same page.”
There remains a feeling among some within the ECB that some of the first-class counties are making worryingly slow progress towards their equality and diversity targets, particularly in terms of the make-up of the personnel on their boards and committees.
Reforms at Yorkshire — including confirming Patel as chairman and installing eight independent directors on a board of 12 — are set to be voted on by their members at an extraordinary general meeting next Thursday. Although there have been attempts, led by the former chairman Robin Smith, at blocking those reforms, it is expected that the majority of Yorkshire members will vote through the changes that would then allow the county to have their international hosting rights returned to them by the ECB. This should help Yorkshire to begin the process of repairing the financial damage they suffered after most of their sponsorship deals were terminated when the racism scandal escalated last year.
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Rafiq said he still hadn’t received a proper apology from Michael Vaughan, who he alleges used a racially offensive phrase towards him and three other non-white players during a Yorkshire match in 2009.
Vaughan denies the allegation and on Thursday returned to broadcasting as a pundit with BT Sport for the third Test between West Indies and England, having been taken off air by BT and the BBC during the Ashes over the winter. The former England captain said he had recently been on an inclusion and diversity training course which had opened his eyes to the issues and claimed that he was “a better person” for having undergone the training.
“I’ve tried to stay away from individuals throughout this whole case, but from my point of view, I’ve not had proper apologies and I’ve not had that from many people involved because cricket as a whole doesn’t actually feel like there’s an issue,” Rafiq added. “It [Vaughan’s return to broadcasting] is not my decision and it’s not something I really want to get involved in.”
