STIRLING, Scotland (AP) — Scottish cricket authorities will pursue formal investigations into 22 allegations of racism arising from a shattering independent review that found the country’s governing body to be institutionally racist.
The review — called “Changing the Boundaries” — was published in July following a seven-month investigation sparked by allegations from Scotland’s all-time leading wicket-taker, Majid Haq, and his former teammate, Qasim Sheikh.
As part of the investigation, 68 individual concerns were referred for further enquiries and that number rose to 77 following the release of the report.
Forty-three of those concerns were found to be distinct race-related issues and almost half of them have been sent for investigation, with the rest either requiring additional information or being settled or paused because of legal proceedings.
While there is no clear timescale for the investigations, Cricket Scotland said it was “committed to ensuring that these are conducted thoroughly and sensitively and, where appropriate, as quickly as possible.”
“The report was clear in its findings and we are moving forward in making the changes required to make Scottish cricket an exemplar going forward,” said Gordon Arthur, the interim chief executive of Cricket Scotland who was installed after the previous board resigned en masse immediately before publication of the review.
The review found Cricket Scotland failed in 29 out of 31 indicators of institutional racism set out by a consultancy firm leading the investigation. The body only partially passed the other two tests and there were 448 examples of institutional racism.
Among the allegations of institutional racism were racial abuse, the use of inappropriate language, favoritism toward white children from public schools, and a lack of a transparent selection process.
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