Cricket Scotland is found as ‘institutionally racist’ after a thorough review by an independent firm, Plan4Sport. According to the review, Cricket Scotland’s governance and leadership practices demonstrated racism, inequality, and discrimination.
According to the study carried out by Plan4Sport, there were over 448 examples where 62% of the survey respondents revealed that they have either experienced or witnessed racist practices within Cricket Scotland.
The independent review has been in process since December of last year when Paln4Sport carried out an investigation, interviewing over 1,000 people associated with cricket in the country. The review was carried out after former Scotland player, Majid Haq, had leveled racism allegations against Cricket Scotland.
Haq’s former teammate, Qasim Sheikh, had also stated that both the players were treated differently because of the color of their skin and there were numerous occasions where they had suffered from discrimination.
The managing director of Plan4Sport revealed that after extensive research, they had no doubt that the whole institution of Cricket Scotland was involved in racist practices.
He stated, “Over the review period, we have seen the bravery of so many people coming forward to share their stories which had clearly impacted on their lives. The reality is that the leadership of the organization failed to see the problems and, in failing to do so, enabled a culture of racially aggravated micro-aggressions to develop.”
It didn’t address the lack of diversity at board and staff level and missed the need to develop transparent reporting, investigation and case management processes to address incidents of racism and discrimination.
The board of Cricket Scotland resigned from their positions a day before the report was made public. The interim CEO of Cricket Scotland issued a heartfelt apology to the victims of racism and stated that a significant culture change must happen quickly.
The investigation report has recommended the sports governing body in Scotland, SportScotland, to place Cricket Scotland in ‘special measures’ until October of next year and appoint new board members by end of September 2022.
