Frazer: Report into discrimination within cricket to be published soon

A long-delayed report into discrimination within cricket will be published “soon”, the Culture Secretary told a committee of MPs on Tuesday.

The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) was set up by the England and Wales Cricket Board in March 2021 and opened its call for evidence in November of the same year.

ICEC chair Cindy Butts promised the report would “put up a mirror” to the sport and confront the race, gender and class barriers which exist within the sport, with ECB chairman Richard Thompson saying he expects the report to be “challenging” for the sport.

The ICEC first said the report would be published in the autumn of 2022, before later announcing it would be out in early 2023.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer was asked to give an update to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee and said: “I understand (the ICEC) will soon be publishing their report.

“I am not privy to what’s in the report, but they will be reporting soon and when I see the ECB – I am looking forward to going to the Ashes – I’ll be raising it.”

The ECB has activated a 12-point plan to tackle racism in the wake of former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq’s harrowing testimony to the DCMS committee in November 2021.

The ECB then launched its own investigation into Rafiq’s allegation and Yorkshire’s handling of those allegations. Six former Yorkshire players have been sanctioned by an independent Cricket Discipline Commission in relation to the matter, with a seventh – former England captain Michael Vaughan – cleared of using racist or discriminatory language.

Yorkshire as a club face a sanctions hearing of their own on June 27.

Frazer also confirmed the Government’s consultation response on the White Paper for football governance would be published this summer.

The Government published its White Paper in February, setting out the scope of a new independent regulator for the sport, before launching a consultation.

Frazer said she also expected a review of women’s football, led by former England international Karen Carney, to be published this summer.