English cricket is ‘racist, sexist and elitist’, says independent report

English cricket is “racist, sexist and elitist” at all levels of the game, according to a damning new independent report.

The findings are the result of a two-year investigation into the sport by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC).

Within the 317-page Holding Up a Mirror to Cricket report, the commission made 44 recommendations, including urging the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to publicly apologise for its failings.

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The conclusions “will send shockwaves across cricket”, said the i news site. The report is “damning in its frankness, especially towards the leadership failures over several decades” of the ECB.

Commissioned by the ECB in March 2021, the report found racism to be “entrenched” in cricket, women “frequently demeaned, stereotyped and treated as second-class”, and described the sport as “elitist and exclusionary”.

Reference to former Yorkshire player turned whistleblower Azeem Rafiq was also made in the report, after he “laid bare the abuse he had endured playing the game” in 2021, The Guardian said. The ECB was criticised for “failing to recognise the extent of racism in cricket until more recently”, the newspaper added.

The inquiry was ordered two years ago “in the wake of global movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too”, the BBC said. After an online call for evidence, “4,156 responses” were received, and a further 150 replies arrived in March 2022 after a further request, the broadcaster added.

Those giving evidence included Rafiq, England men’s Test captain Ben Stokes, women’s captain Heather Knight and former men’s captain Joe Root. The ICEC is chaired by Cindy Butts, a former deputy chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

ECB chair Richard Thompson apologised for the failings of his organisation and the sport more widely. “This report makes clear that historic structures and systems have failed to prevent discrimination, and highlights the pain and exclusion this has caused. I am determined that this wake-up call for cricket in England and Wales should not be wasted.”