A day after Scotland Cricket Board resigned over racism allegations, the governance and leadership practices of Cricket Scotland have been found to be “institutionally racist” in a report submitted by the independent review on Monday.
The findings of an independent investigation mentioned it has uncovered 448 instances of institutional racism within the Scottish game. Further,62% of survey respondents have admitted they had experienced, seen, or reported incidents of racism, inequalities, or discrimination.
Notably, the review was conducted after allegations made by Scotland cricketers Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh. The review was conducted by Plan4Sport – an equality and diversity organisation. It engaged with nearly 1,000 people over a six-month period to find out exactly what happened in Scottish cricket.
Other findings in the report also included a lack of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and anti-racist training for the board, staff, volunteers, players, coaches or umpires. It was also noted that there was no mechanism in place for handling racist incidents.
“Our view is clear: the governance and leadership practices of Cricket Scotland have been institutionally racist. We have seen the bravery of so many people coming forward to share their stories which had clearly impacted on their lives,” said Louise Tideswell, managing director of Plan4Sport, in a statement.
“People who have loved cricket and, despite the many knockbacks, continued to try and make progress, umpires who committed so many hours even though promotion never came, and players who saw or heard racism and hostility but kept coming back to play.The reality is that the leadership of the organisation failed to see the problems and, in failing to do so, enabled a culture of racially aggravated micro-aggressions to develop,” she added.
