For those of you who have seen the headlines and social media comment but not read the report you can do so here. With 50 pages of content it is a long and difficult read and the authours should be applauded for the depth, integrity and honesty. Unlike many recent reports this one leave no doubt in the readers mind, and for many will help to understand the term institutional racism.
It is not for us to even attempt to say we understand what friends like Azeem Rafiq and Qasim Sheikh have gone through, are going through and will carry with them or the rest of their lives, but we can try and educate ourselves and others to ensure the future is better for everyone.
It is hard to envisage a more damming report, and personally when you consider the ‘size’ of Scottish Cricket you have to ask surely how many English Counties could have the same levels?
Institutional Racism
Conclusions
4.1 Mapping against the Plan4Sport Indicators of Institutional Racism
Once all consultations had been completed the summaries of each meeting, headline findings, desk top analysis and referrals highlighted in Section 3 Analysis of feedback, data, and insight, and highlevel summaries were reviewed to identify any reoccurring themes, and these were mapped against the Plan4Sport Indicators of Institutional Racism.
From this analysis, 448 separate examples were identified that mapped against one of the Plan4Sport Indicators of Institutional Racism.
The table below details each of the 31 Plan4Sport Indicators of Institutional Racism. It highlights that 29 are graded red and 2 are graded amber. There are none graded green. Where these are rated as Red, this shows a failure to meet the indicator. Amber highlights that Cricket Scotland partially meets the indicator but there is still work to do to meet this in full.
In 1999, the Met Police was branded institutionally racist by Sir William MacPherson in his report of the public inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. He defined institutional racism as:
“The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”
Having failed against 29 of the 31 indicators in the Plan4Sport Indicators of Institutional Racism Framework, the review would conclude that processes, attitudes, and behaviours of Cricket Scotland meet the MacPherson definition of institutional racism.
We are mindful that there are current referrals under investigation that, subject to their outcome, may lead us to conclude that institutional racism exists in other areas of the game.
5.0 Conclusions and immediate recommendations
. Cricket Scotland is placed in special measures by sportscotland
• To be in place until October 2023 to provide a full year of oversight by sportscotland
• Cricket Scotland to commence an immediate recruitment process for new Board members, with appointments made no later than 30 September 2022
• Given the resignation of the existing Board on 24 July 2022. It is recommended that new Board members must not have a relationship with Cricket Scotland, organisations, or individuals that could cause a conflict of interest
• The diversity of the Board members should be a minimum of 40% men and 40% women, and ensuring that a minimum of 25% of the total Board makeup come from of Black, South-East Asian, or other mixed or multiple ethnic groups. Getting to Know You survey – club players diversity is 25% from those communities and this should be reflected in the membership of the new Board
• Action Plan to be developed by Cricket Scotland which addresses the immediate actions and short-term KPI’s set out below. The Action Plan should be approved by sportscotland not later than 30 September 2022
• Appoint four new key roles to Cricket Scotland; Anti-racism and EDI Manager, Discipline Manager, HR Manager and Communications Manager
• Undertake a governance review
• sportscotland to have oversight of progress against the agreed Action Plan. Cricket Scotland to provide weekly update reports to sportscotland on this.
Western District Cricket Union (WDCU) is placed in special measures by Cricket Scotland with
immediate effect
• Temporary and immediate suspension of WDCU’s role in managing all disciplinary matters relating to its competitions and clubs. These are to be handed to an alternative organisation to manage
• An urgent, independent review into the overall effectiveness of WDCU’s Management Committee implementation of the disciplinary processes to be completed by the end of September.
Cricket Scotland addresses the backlog in referrals generated from the review
• All investigations resulting from referrals to be expedited by a third party with the appropriate expertise.