Racism in cricket: Government should limit public funding unless progress is made – DCMS report

Rafiq told the select committee in November that English cricket is “institutionally racist” and racist language was “constantly” used during his time as a player at Yorkshire.

Knight said the MPs had been “shocked” by language used in correspondence they had received following the hearing.

The report also made reference to stories in the media run to “discredit” Rafiq.

“It further established that eradicating racism from the game will be a long and difficult road,” the report said.

“It does not matter if a whistleblower is of perfect moral character but whether the issue raised is valid.

“It is evident to us that there is a deep-seated issue of racism in cricket.”

Knight again praised Rafiq’s courage in speaking out about racism.

MPs also heard from Hutton and representatives from the ECB, including chief executive Tom Harrison, during November’s session.

Harrison said English cricket was nearing an emergency over its failure to address racism, with the governing body subsequently publishing a five-point plan to tackle the issue.

“Public funding for cricket must depend on real leadership and progress by the ECB to tackle abhorrent behaviour,” Knight said.

“The government must make future funding conditional on the game cleaning up its act.

“We put the ECB on notice that we expect regular updates delivered to this committee on progress being made.”

MPs recommended the ECB develop a set of “key indicators” to measure progress and then report back to the committee.

They will also invite Yorkshire and the ECB to give evidence on their progress early in 2022.

Knight told BBC sports editor Dan Roan that the long-term viability of the ECB itself could be questioned if they did not tackle racism.

“Any grants from Sport England or any form of governmental grant should be dependent upon the ECB showing that it has not just established these targets but is actively looking to achieve them,” he added.

“If that also doesn’t happen, we could potentially look at an option down the line of establishing an independent regulator.

“This is a key test of whether or not that should still remain the case.”