https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/06/27/english-cricket-racism-icec-report-culture-war-heffer/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
Cricket has been dragged into the culture wars by an activist minority
Racism has no place in cricket but an ‘independent’ panel is not impartial – and history has been ignored

SIMON HEFFER
27 June 2023 • 7:35pmSimon Heffer
The authors of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report - Cricket has been dragged into the culture wars by an activist minority
Report authors Michelle Moore (left to right), Sir Brendan Barber, Cindy Butts (Chair), Dr Michael Collins and Zafar Ansari CREDIT: PA/Josimar Senior
No sensible person, and certainly no sensible cricket-lover, can believe racism has any place in cricket at any level. It should not have taken the England and Wales Cricket Board’s Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, which reported on Tuesday, to work that out. And the remedy should be simple: that proven allegations should result in the instant dismissal of any player or official responsible for such behaviour. However, the commission is about far more than just that: equity covers gender [itself a subject in some jeopardy] and class, and the report wallows in them.

These are deeply political matters. In that context, the adjective in the commission’s title – independent – is interesting: independent of what? Of the ECB, certainly: but independence is not the same as impartiality. All five members of the commission have long records of progressive thought and activism. Any mildly conservative impulse among them that might take into account the more benign aspects of cricket’s history must be rare indeed. They represent a minority activist view and not majority opinion. The commission was chaired by Cindy Butts, who has a long record of anti-racist activism. She is also a veteran of the Metropolitan Police Authority, so had oversight of what is now depicted as one of the most disgraceful police forces in England. The ‘organisation and culture reforms’ on which she led, according to the commission’s website, clearly have yet to kick in.

Read more at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/06/27/english-cricket-racism-icec-report-culture-war-heffer/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

RH

On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 6:58:21 PM UTC+10, Robert Henderson wrote:
> No sensible person, and certainly no sensible cricket-lover, can believe racism has any place in cricket at any level.

Even people you quote are attacking you. Poor RH.

On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 10:25:37 AM UTC+1, jack fredricks wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 6:58:21 PM UTC+10, Robert Henderson wrote:
> > No sensible person, and certainly no sensible cricket-lover, can believe racism has any place in cricket at any level.
> Even people you quote are attacking you. Poor RH.

"These are deeply political matters. In that context, the adjective in the commission’s title – independent – is interesting: independent of what? Of the ECB, certainly: but independence is not the same as impartiality. All five members of the commission have long records of progressive thought and activism. Any mildly conservative impulse among them that might take into account the more benign aspects of cricket’s history must be rare indeed. They represent a minority activist view and not majority opinion. The commission was chaired by Cindy Butts, who has a long record of anti-racist activism. She is also a veteran of the Metropolitan Police Authority, so had oversight of what is now depicted as one of the most disgraceful police forces in England. The ‘organisation and culture reforms’ on which she led, according to the commission’s website, clearly have yet to kick in.!

RH