They were the emerging talents who turned into the lost boys of Scottish cricket; a group of youngsters who were tipped to steer their country forward, but, for one reason or another, gradually drifted out of favour.
Plenty of shock and consternation has been expressed about the damning findings of an independent review, Changing the Boundaries, which has concluded that the governance of the sport in Scotland is institutionally racist and has cited scores of allegations of racial abuse, use of inappropriate language, favouritism towards white children from public schools and a lack of a transparent selection process.
The governing body’s entire board resigned on Sunday; the chief executive of Sportscotland, Stewart Harris, has described the findings as “deeply concerning and in some cases shocking”; and the police are investigating the more serious issues, while there has been descriptions of this scandal as a “wake-up call”.
Perhaps some of the recommendations which have been made to improve matters, including more diverse board membership and transparency in such areas as job appointments and team selection, will create a change in the culture in due course, but the scale of the malaise, with Cricket Scotland having failed in 29 out of 31 indicators of institutional racism, genuinely begs the question: “Has nobody been looking at what has been happening in front of their own eyes for the last 20 to 25 years?”
Players disappeared from the big picture
Because I have. Back in 2004, I wrote a piece about the rise of a group of Scottish Asian players who seemed destined for senior international recognition and a plethora of prizes if they could develop their skills and eventually graduate into the senior set-up.
The story featured Kasim Farid, an 18-year-old who had become the first player from an ethnic background to captain his country, and highlighted the increasing numbers of people with his drive and determination to be involved at representative level.
These individuals included Kasim, Zeeshan Bashir, Allauddin Farooq, Gautham Hariharan, Umair Mohammed, Omer Hussain, Navdeep Singh Poonia and Moneeb Iqbal, while I referenced Qasim Sheikh and Majid Haq, who had already become a fully-fledged Saltire and went on to gain more than 200 caps for his country.
Racism on the cricket field
Yet, what should have been the launchpad for stellar careers proved nothing of the sort. On the contrary, precious few of these players were granted the opportunity to progress through the ranks. Of course, there is always a drop-off between those who shine on the youth stage and those with the temperament and technique to succeed as adults, but this was something different. Whether unconsciously or not, and whether there was any overt racism involved, most of these players disappeared from the big picture.
Qasim was good enough to score a century on the first-class circuit in Pakistan, but only earned a limited number of chances for Scotland. The same was true of Omer and Moneeb who were ditched while some of their white counterparts seemed to be given significantly more chances. But it was the treatment of Majid, which always struck me as a lesson in how NOT to do things in building up a player’s confidence.
At various grounds down the years, I heard criticism of his perceived lack of fitness – as if cricket was ever a one-size-fits-all pursuit, his so-called “moodiness”, which translated into: “How dare he disagree with me!” and his capacity for speaking his mind – which I’ve always regarded as one of his best qualities. One of his former captains couldn’t have made it more obvious he didn’t even want him in the team.
His myriad strengths, his ability with bat and ball and natural intelligence and pride in everything he was doing, were too often taken for granted, yet when he was dropped at the 2015 World Cup and responded on Twitter with the words: “Always tougher when your in the minority!” he was sent home and never picked again. It stank then and that ill-fated decision was the catalyst for the mess in which the game now finds itself.
Culture change needed
As for Kasim, I recall asking him whether he had suffered abuse in the early part of his career and he replied: “We’ve endured some racism on the cricket field – name-calling and disparaging references to our colour – and it is never pleasant. But we still think the vast majority of Scots are decent people and we have learned to rise above the taunts of a few idiots and persevere with the one thing which really matters to us.”
I’m slightly ashamed that I didn’t highlight these disturbing words more at the time. But Kasim also told me he had visited Robben Island, the scene of Nelson Mandela’s incarceration, during a West District tour of South Africa in 2002, and that trip had equipped him with a proper perspective on life. He was an impressive young man as were so many of that gifted Class of 2004. So what went wrong?
The new report spells it out clearly, unambiguously. They were failed by an old-fashioned blazerati who didn’t want to change and had no interest in catering for such “woke” principles as diversity and inclusivity. This isn’t just confined to cricket. How many Scottish Asians participate in rugby, for instance? Or football?
In which light, this is a crisis wholly of Scottish sport’s own making. Cosmetic changes aren’t sufficient, nor will they work if people use “banter” to mask bigotry and racial prejudice. The whole culture has to change, but I’ll only believe it when it happens.
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