Former England skipper Andrew Strauss has described the damning report into discrimination in cricket as an “awakening” for the game and urged these in energy to supply greater than “lip service” in response.
The long-awaited Impartial Fee for Fairness in Cricket report discovered racism was entrenched within the sport, that girls routinely encountered sexism and misogyny and that little or no motion has been taken to deal with class obstacles inside the sport.
The ICEC report describes the game in England and Wales as “elitist and exclusionary”.
Strauss has spent a lot of his profession in influential positions on the England and Wales Cricket Board, from England captain, to director of males’s cricket and latterly strategic adviser to the board, however left the organisation earlier this yr.
“This can be a actual time of awakening for the sport of cricket,” he mentioned at an occasion for the Ruth Strauss Basis.
“It’s a must to transfer ahead as a sport. The clear takeaway is the sport has to do higher, has to maneuver ahead and never be defensive.
“We have now to verify anybody who needs to play cricket feels included, welcomed and appreciated. If we get to that stage the sport of cricket shall be in a a lot more healthy place.
“I used to be fortunate sufficient to play in inclusive groups and I understand how highly effective that may be.
“What the report is clearly exhibiting is we haven’t accomplished effectively sufficient historically.
“It’s an essential second for the sport to embrace this, study the lesson, don’t pay lip service to it and ensure what we see on the again finish is definitely change.”
The ECB issued an unreserved apology for the failings highlighted within the report and to the victims of discrimination in cricket, and can work over the subsequent three months on a package deal of reforms based mostly on the 44 suggestions inside the report.
Richard Gould, the ECB chief government, mentioned: “It’s an existential subject for the game. This can be a report that the ECB particularly requested for two-and-a-half years in the past, and intentionally didn’t set slim parameters.
“This report is a seminal second for us. It helps us to completely perceive the scope of the problems inside the sport, it permits us to grasp the apologies that we fairly rightly make to these people who suffered discrimination.
“We’re decided to have the ability to act on this report and ship on its intent within the coming months.
“This report will comprise a lot of info which is able to come as a shock to many and many individuals shall be upset by.
“However there’s additionally an enormous quantity of dedication all through the sport, all through the nation, to make it possible for cricket can ship and in solely a manner that cricket can.”