Jon Berry’s book on racism in cricket has much to say about how sport reflects and amplifies the structural racism and corporate priorities of wider society, finds Jamal Elaheebocus

Cricket rarely makes it to the headlines. Barring the odd Ashes success or a World Cup win, most of the time the sport goes under the radar. That’s probably a good thing for the people running the game, considering that it is riven with scandals, racism and sexism. It was the racism that brought cricket into the news headlines thanks to the brave testimony of Azeem Rafiq in 2021. It brought the discussions about racism and the wider exclusionary nature of the game to the forefront of the news and forced conversations about it in the cricket media.

Jon Berry’s book, From Azeem to Ashes, is a succinct and very accurate diagnosis of the problems at the heart of English cricket. These are wide ranging and not easily solved, from a chaotic schedule which is harming players to institutional racism at the county and national level. Berry uses the period of time from the disastrous West Indies tour of 2022 to the enthralling Ashes of Summer 2023 as a template to address these issues in an accessible way to cricket and non-cricket fans alike.

Rafiq’s experience is at the heart of the book and guides the discussion, particularly on racism. For those unaware, Rafiq has been central to exposing the extent of racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club by discussing his experiences while a player. He has talked about institutional racism in the club, racist abuse directed at him by the most prominent players and the confrontational attitude of the board when he raised concerns.

The most distressing example of this is after Rafiq and his wife suffered the loss of their first child in a stillbirth. Rafiq describes the total lack of support and sympathy offered by the club and even being shouted at by coaches the day after the death of his child.

In his testimony to the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport), Rafiq explains that this experience is not unique and happens or has happened at counties across the country. Other players of colour, such as Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, have been quiet in their response to these revelations, most likely because they are still in the England setup and, as Rafiq’s case has shown, speaking out may jeopardise their careers.

Institutional racism in sport

What also stands out from the book is the total inadequacy of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in responding to these issues or, frankly, governing the game at all. Their response to the Yorkshire revelations was nothing short of a disgrace; a mealy-mouthed statement and a ban on Yorkshire hosting international matches, which was promptly lifted after Yorkshire apparently implemented sufficient measures to address the issues.

There are deep roots to these issues which the ECB has spent years neglecting. Perhaps the most important is access to the game for young people and particularly for those from poor families or from ethnic-minority communities. There has been a 75% decrease in professional black cricketers in the UK in the last 25 years. There are several reasons for this, but the issues are linked to why the game, as a whole, fails to be representative of the makeup of society.

As Berry says, cricket is an expensive sport, requiring lots of equipment and a lot of time on the part of parents to ferry children to and from training, matches etc. For those from deprived backgrounds who do not have this time or money, their only access to cricket is in their schools. However, cricket, as with sport in general, has decreased massively across state schools and has largely become exclusive to private schools. That is reflected in the makeup of both the men’s and women’s teams, which are over-represented by those who are privately educated and in which people of colour are under-represented.

In many ways, the problems of cricket are the problems of society as a whole. Structural racism means people of colour are more likely to be in poverty and therefore more likely to be excluded from cricket; add to that the fact that young people no longer see players who look like themselves in the game. The Caribbean cricket club in Luton which Berry visits, the only one of four left standing, highlights these issues well.

The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket released a damning report on the state of the sport which found that: ‘elitism alongside deeply rooted and widespread forms of institutional and structural racism, sexism and class-based discrimination continue to exist across the game’ (p.217).

What Berry does well to highlight is the stagnancy and failure of the ECB to address these issues, producing white paper after white paper full of corporate drivel with no action following them up. This is in stark contrast to the actions of the ACE programme, which picks out and helps develop promising young cricketers from ethnic-minority communities, and other grassroots initiatives which are taking action to bring more young people from under-represented groups into the game.

Cash is King

The free market has steamrolled cricket, as it has many sports. Players are hopping around the globe to play for franchises owned by vulture capitalists and billionaires. Cricket boards are prioritising money-making franchise tournaments over their own national team and maintaining all formats of the game.

After the last day of the 2005 Ashes captured the attention of 8.4 million people, cricket was hidden behind a paywall and has been, with the odd exception, ever since. A large number of working-class people have been denied access to the sport and thus have no way into getting involved. All these decisions are driven by corporate greed and by free-market ideology and have contributed to the fall from visibility of the sport.

Where Berry’s book falls down slightly is in new ideas about the solutions to the problems in cricket. In fairness, this may be because the solutions are fairly obvious and simple, but the appetite is not there to implement them. For example, giving the ACE programme ECB backing and more funding to expand would help access for people of colour.

The other issue, as Berry says, is that cricket (and any sport) reflects the society in which it exists. Many of the issues of poverty, inequality and decreased school budgets need to be resolved at a society-wide level. However, a functioning and competent ECB with the desire to solve the inequalities in cricket could make large improvements to some of these issues.

What could have been addressed further was the role that players’ organisations and fans can play in pressuring and campaigning for change. The PCA (the cricketers’ trade union) should be taking the issues of racism and sexism in cricket head-on and advocating for changes.

Fans have a role too. In the midst of the European Super League scandal, we saw the power which fans have over their clubs when they express their discontent. The cricket audience is absolutely not filled with revolutionaries, a good number are very wealthy and/or Tory party members, but there are a lot of people involved in the game deeply concerned about these issues and we should find a way to leverage that.