Survey reveals more than 1/3rd of Asian and Black cricketers face racism in England

A survey done by the Professional Cricketers' Association of England has found that more than 1/3rd of the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) cricketers in the country have faced some or the other form of racism and, or prejudice while being involved with the game.

This has forced England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to introduce anti-racism training courses for both men and women cricket players in the upcoming year. The courses will cover dressing room culture, raise awareness of how behaviour can be interpreted by different cultures and encourage people to challenge anything they deem to be unacceptable after

The decision to include such courses was specially made after finding that even 'banter' was identified as a mask for racism.

In the Survey it was found that 45 per cent of more than 600 respondents claimed that racism had come from a fellow player, 10 percent said it was from a coach, and around 30 percent had experienced it on social media or from fans.

Not all the players responded to the Questionnaire sent by the PCA as only 173 professionals returned the mail. But even among these 173, 24 were identified as being from the BAME backgrounds which is around 90 per cent of the number of BAME players in the game right now.

Charlie Mulraine, the PCA's lead personal development manager said that it would have been far better if the vast majority of players had responded. “Why they didn't is very difficult to speculate," he added.

Rob Lynch, the PCA's chief executive though is of the belief that it’s just a start and they could go to higher levels with bringing parity in the game. "We needed to start somewhere. This gives us a clear direction of travel and it is an ambition to increase engagement with our members on this issue," he said.

The racism Brown in England cricket started after former Yorkshire and England U-19 skipper Azeem Rafiq said that he contemplated suicide after continuous racial abuse that he underwent at Yorkshire.

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