‘How can racism in cricket be worse than football’: Ex-chief blasts ‘shambles’ probe

Mr Brian, who was chairman of the 14-member Cricket Scotland board that resigned the day before a Changing The Boundaries report found it was institutionally racist, said the sport has lost millions of lost revenue through what he says are unjust findings and has talked of the devastating effect the case has had on his life.

And he said that the subsequent “irredeemably flawed” investigation overseen by the Scottish Government agency SportScotland  was a “shambles” that has cost the public purse hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Brian, who was Cricket Scotland chairman between 2015 and 2022, said: “How is cricket in Scotland worse than things that happen on the racist front in football, yet that is what the world is being told?”

In April, 2022, Mr Brian and other board members stood down after the interim findings of a review into Scottish cricket in which 200 people were said to have engaged directly with the review which found 448 separate examples of racism, discrimination within cricket with more than half (246) relating to policies and procedures across the sport, which created a culture where individuals were treated unfairly.

Allegations included racial abuse, the use of inappropriate language, favouritism to young, white children from public schools and a lack of transparent selection process for non-white players. In some cases, multiple concerns had been raised against the same individual.

The review found contributors had “clearly witnessed or experienced racism, discrimination and persistent micro-aggressions based on race during their role as a coach, umpire or player”.

The review was ordered after a number of allegations were made against Cricket Scotland and Western District Cricket Union (WDCU) in 2021.

Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh

They included accusations of racist abuse suffered by Scottish cricketers Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh.

Two legal firms, Harper Macleod LLP and Bishop Lloyd Jackson Solicitors, and the race inclusion charity Sporting Equals carried out an ‘independent’ investigation into complaints of alleged racist behaviour.

But after two years of further investigation, Cricket Scotland has been unable to confirm that any disciplinary proceedings have taken place.

After further reports, the 202 detailed individual concerns led to 77 referrals.

The independent investigators eventually ended up looking into 53 referred cases. Of those 51 have been concluded and two have yet to commence. Of those, some 13 were examined for review.

Cricket Scotland say just five cases were “progressed to Cricket Scotland’s disciplinary procedures”.

Meanwhile the last updates of SportScotland which placed Cricket Scotland in ‘special measures’ says there is no change in that position even though they were supposed to be in place till October 2023 to provide “a full year of oversight”.

The investigation team has said that across all 51 referrals some 250 “learning lessons were identified” after 4,000 hours of work and engaging with over 170 people and witnesses, considering thousands of pages of documents and evidence from “many different mediums” and “did not exonerate any individual in any report that was offered up to the board of Cricket Scotland”.

Mr Brian said: “It has been a shambles. It wasn’t institutionally racist. It doesn’t mean there were not isolated incidents of racism. There were. And we dealt with them when they arose, in what we believed to be the right way. Sadly this is reflective of how society is in Scotland and elsewhere, where these isolated incidents arise.

“But for Cricket Scotland to be considered institutionally racist was absolutely wrong and the report reached an incorrect conclusion.

“There should be an inquiry, to look at it from the beginning to the end, assess what has gone wrong, reach conclusions and provide lessons to be learnt and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”

He asked what happened to “the other 151 so-called racists incidents” and the 246 policy and procedural failings which he said were never published in full but cited in the Plan4Sport Changing Boundaries report.

(Image: NQ)

He says the report’s existence was publicised with “great fanfare but now seem to have been brushed under the carpet”.

Mr Brian said said SportScotland and the investigation team, in the interests of full openness and transparency, must urgently publish the details of all the referred cases where disciplinary action has not been recommended, including the date of the incident, its alleged nature and the specific reason why it has not been pursued.

Mr Brian said: “Cricket Scotland has been a diverse sport for many, many years. We have had a higher proportion of people from ethnic backgrounds than I think any other major sport.

“What has happened has been an appalling example of a failure of a government agency, sportscotland to address issues rigorously and base them on evidence and with fairness to everybody.

“What should happen when allegations are made is that there should be a rigorous investigation of them, what happened here is there were allegations made and immediately accepted as true before any investigation was made, or questions asked of the people against whom the complaints were made so they get an opportunity to provide evidence to rebut them. The lack of rigour, the lack of hard evidence and due process is the issue.”

He said it had “undoubtedly” been a stain on his reputation adding: “I have longstanding friends who don’t contact me any longer. But my reputation frankly is neither here nor there in the great scale of things. The reputation of cricket in Scotland has been hugely affected. If you are a parent wanting your child to go into a sport, would you choose cricket now with the taint that has been put upon it? ”

Scottish cricket, which has seen its players almost make the quarter finals of the T20 World Cup at the expense of England, had applied to become a Full Member the International Cricket Council (ICC)  in 2021 and detailed discussions were taking place until the Changing the Boundaries report changed everything.

“That would have made a financial difference of more than £10m a year if it had been accepted,” said Mr Brian. “And there was a really good chance we would be accepted with effect from 2023. That disappeared when the Changing the Boundaries report appeared. So it this is more than just reputation, it is concrete investment in the game that has been affected.

“If you were a sponsor, would you want to put money into a game that has this taint about it?.”

Campaign group Running Out Racism has also called into question the investigation into John Blain, one of Scotland’s all-time leading wicket takers.

Managing director of Plan4Sport, Louise Tideswell presents the damning report.
 

It questioned statements made by Cricket Scotland surrounding racism allegations against the former international after he said the investigation’s findings “fully exonerate me” .

Mr Blain made public a letter from Cricket Scotland’s interim chief executive Pete Fitzboydon from January, informing him that the allegations against him were “unfounded” but requesting that he kept that information confidential to allow time for the complainers to be informed of the outcomes.

Cricket Scotland’s subsequent “delay and prevarication” in going public, Mr Blain said, forced him to release his statement, five months after receiving the letter.

But the investigating team subsequently clarified its role had been to “make findings of fact” and not to pronounce guilt or innocence against any person.

Running Out Racism says Cricket Scotland subsequently provided it with a “contradictory account of the situation and Mr Blain’s claims”.

One of the whistleblowers who lodged complaints relating to incidents in 2006 spoke of his disappointment after receiving a letter that said this complaint was dropped “through a technicality”.

Mr Brian said what happened to Mr Blain was “shameful, absolutely incredible and appalling” and an example of the investigation “shambles”.

“John has a letter he received from Cricket Scotland and felt that for for five months he was exonerated and now they say that is not so. He is now going to be left with a stain on his reputation, because there was some technical reason that they couldn’t look at the issue,” he said.

The investigation team said that it can state with “absolute confidence that the “extensive investigations undertaken echoed those findings reported in Changing The Boundaries with regards to failings at institutional level which led to improper individual practices”.

“Evidence of poor governance, poor and/or absent polices and procedures to handle complaints of racism, inappropriate and/or a lack of support for whistleblowers and/or complainers and failings in the delivery of appropriate diversity, equity and inclusion policies were all evident to the investigation team.”

It said that complaints and allegations hat did not result in disciplinary proceedings because of “varying difficulties that in no way diminished or countered the basis to the allegations presented by the complainers…”

And the have said that it strongly urged Cricket Scotland to “acknowledge the numerous recommendations made by Changing the Boundaries and by the investigation team’s learning lessons which, once fully adopted and embraced, will improve and strengthen the game for all” and “to move forward accepting that for too many people, participation in cricket has involved those individuals experiencing unacceptable behaviours, compounded by an environment in which they have been unable to bring forward their complaints and/or seek appropriate redress at the time of those experiences”.

It also said that Cricket Scotland “fully support a process of reconciliation and where necessary mediation via formal and informal routes for the good of individual personal relationships and for the good of the sport in Scotland”.

Last year, a scorer who abused a cricket umpire match in Greenock was banned from the sport for life. Ronald (Ronnie) McGregor admitted a charge of ‘acting in a racially aggravated manner which caused or was intended to cause alarm or distress’ to Majid Haq when the scorer called the former Scotland international a ‘cheating P**i’ during Greenock’s game against Stenhousemuir at Glenpark on August 12, a year after the Changing the Boundaries report was published.

And in 2022 a former first class cricketer was cleared of force-feeding meat and alcohol to a young player knowing it was against his religious beliefs.

Graham Gardner was alleged to have targeted Parag Gadhia at Stenhousemuir Cricket Club, Falkirk, between 1 January 1989 and 31 December 1991.

But the charge was found not proven after a trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Frank Gill said that the evidence from witnesses in the case was not entirely reliable.

SportScotland said nobody was available for comment.

Cricket Scotland was approached for comment.