Glamorgan county makes attempt to tackle racism

GLAMORGAN wants to improve its diversity on and off the field, for which the county's chairman Gareth Williams has set out a plan.

In order to tackle racism and discrimination in cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last week came out with a five-point action plan after Azeem Rafiq's testimony.

"There is no place for racism and it has to be eliminated," Williams was quoted as saying.

"What is encouraging is that this is a collective plan, it's not a plan which has been imposed from above from the ECB. On the contrary, it's a plan both the recreational game and professional game have been working on together.

"A lot of the features of it are things that we've already been working on, but there's still a huge amount of work to do.

"One of the things we're trying to encourage is whistleblowing and that's a process which is currently taking place within Glamorgan."

Last month former Yorkshire player Rafiq told a Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee that cricket is "institutionally racist".

While Jahid Ahmed, Maurice Chambers and Zoheb Sharif have also made allegation during their time at Essex.

When asked if any player has come forward to make similar allegations against Glamorgan. He told BBC Sport Wales: "Not since that [Rafiq's testimony] has taken place, I'm not aware of it.

"One simply doesn't know because there is a process for whistleblowing which is ongoing. I very much hope that nothing comes through but we shall have to deal with it if it does."

In July, a former Glamorgan player accused the county of institutional racism but now says they are "trying to knock down barriers".

In a Telegraph article last year, Mohsin Arif alleged of preferential treatment given to white players. But later he met Glamorgan's chief executive Hugh Morris to discuss his experiences.

Arif, who now works with the county as a coach says since then Glamorgan has supported cricketers from ethnic communities to play at the top level.

"I think the way we dealt with that was a good example of how we can help to overcome the issue of discrimination in sport," said Williams.

"That particular individual, our chief executive Hugh Morris had a very long discussion with him and was able to reassure him in a number of respects.

"He is now a consultant coach who coaches within our pathway system and coaches regularly here."

Glamorgan is also looking to improve the number of players from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who want to step up from playing recreational cricket to play at a professional level.

Currently, Kiran Carlson and Prem Sisodiya are the first Welsh-born cricketers of Asian heritage to play first-team for the county.