Cricket chief apologises for comments on race

Middlesex chairman Mike O’Farrell has apologised for comments on black and South Asian interest in cricket that were called “painful” and “outdated” by ex-England player Ebony Rainford-Brent.

He was speaking at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee hearing into how cricket plans to tackle racism in the sport.

Rainford-Brent said such “outdated views” were “exactly” why cricket was under pressure to tackle issues of diversity and inclusion following former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq’s account of racism in the sport.

O’Farrell subsequently offered his “wholehearted apologies” for the “misunderstanding” his comments at the hearing had caused.

“I wholly accept that this misunderstanding is entirely down to my own lack of clarity and context in the answers I provided, and I am devastated that my comments have led to the conclusions some have made,” he said.

“For the purposes of clarification, I was aiming to make the point that as a game, cricket has failed a generation of young cricketers, in systematically failing to provide them with the same opportunities that other sports and sectors so successfully provide.”

Rafiq, who in November told the DCMS select committee that English cricket was “institutionally racist”, said he accepted O’Farrell’s apology “without a doubt”, adding: “If someone apologises we have to forgive and we have to try and work together.”

However, the 30-year-old told BBC Radio 4 the language used at the DCMS hearing was “painful” and “hurtful” as it was a reminder of how Yorkshire had dealt with him.

Rafiq told the PM programme: “I think today has shown everyone what I was talking about and how we have a long way to go.

“Clearly the counties and the game are still very much in denial and that’s a big worry.”

Rafiq claims the data he has seen does not support O’Farrell’s reasons why players were not progressing in the sport.

Instead, he says O’Farrell’s view on black and South Asian players are “a stereotypical way of trying to blame a minority group for why there is a problem in the game”.

Rafiq added: “Any person of colour reading that, to say Asian kids don’t want to pay cricket because it’s time consuming… it’s staggering.

“What worries me is he felt so comfortable… to sit in front of a public forum and to express the views. If that is what is at the top, then it’s worrying times for Middlesex Cricket Club.”

A parliamentary report earlier this month recommended the government should limit public funding for cricket unless there was “continuous, demonstrable progress” on eradicating “deep-seated racism”.

When asked about Middlesex’s record on diversity and inclusion, O’Farrell said that 57% of their players under the age of 17 came from “culturally diverse backgrounds”.

He said that diversity was “more difficult” to maintain at higher levels and particularly in the academy, for “several reasons”.

Going into those reasons, O’Farrell claimed that “the football and rugby worlds become much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community” at that age.

He added: “In terms of the South Asian community, there is a moment where we’re finding that they do not want necessarily to commit the same time that is necessary to go to the next step because they prefer – not always saying they do it – they sometimes prefer to go into other educational fields and then cricket becomes secondary.

“Part of that is because it’s a rather more time-consuming sport than some others, so we’re finding that’s difficult.”

He said the situation was “changing” with Twenty20 and one-day cricket and because there was “much more choice and variation in the game” young South Asian men and women were “finding this a much more attractive sport”.

He added: “We are moving it forward – it’s not as fast as we’d like it to and we’re trying to make as many opportunities as we can.”

Rainford-Brent said on social media that “unfortunately the decision-makers hold on to these myths” and “the game deserves better”.

“Just painful,” she added.

In 2018, South Asian players represented 30% of recreational players but only 4% of first-class county players.

The proportion of recreational players who are South Asian has since dropped to 28% but the ECB says there has been an increase in South Asian players in county academies, from 11% in 2018 to 17% in 2019-20.

Rainford-Brent helped found Surrey’s African Caribbean Engagement Programme (ACE) to address a 75% decline in cricket participation by members of the black community over the past 25 years.

She said: “The interest is there the young people just need the right offer.”

In his statement, O’Farrell added cricket “won’t make the progress it needs to” unless it learns how to make the game “an attractive proposition for youngsters of all backgrounds to continue through the pathway into the professional game”.

“We at Middlesex are no different,” he said.

“We have an academy side that contains in excess of 60% British-born Asian and black young cricketers and we must take responsibility for ensuring that the route into the professional game is as accessible and appealing as other sports or opportunities.

“I speak on behalf of the entire club in saying that our desire is to see a 1st XI walking out to play for the club which is truly reflective of the broadly diverse county that Middlesex is today and that we will do all within our power to make that happen.

“Once again I apologise for any upset or hurt my earlier comments may have caused, that was most definitely not my intention.”

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