Photo Credit: Cricket Scotland
CRICKET SCOTLAND ACTION PLAN
Overview
In July 2022, Global Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) experts, Plan4Sport, published the Changing The Boundaries report into racism in Scottish cricket. The review included close to 1,000 direct engagements from a broad cross-section of all levels of Scottish cricket and concluded that the governance and leadership practices of Cricket Scotland were institutionally racist.
As part of the review Plan4Sport found 448 separate examples of racism, discrimination or inequalities across the sport. Reoccurring themes were mapped against 31 indicators of institutional racism, with 29 failing to meet the standard. Changing The Boundaries contained three immediate high-level recommendations, with associated sub-recommendations to address the issues raised in the review.
This short-term Action Plan provides an overview of Cricket Scotland’s response to these immediate recommendations and more importantly how we will use these to make our sport the most diverse in Scotland. Central to this is a commitment to ensure cricket is a welcoming place for all groups and sections within our society. That is a vision we must all now work towards to make our sport truly inclusive.
The immediate priority for Cricket Scotland is to rebuild the sport and deliver meaningful cultural and systemic change and that will be our primary focus over the coming weeks and months. Central to this will be our new anti-racism and EDI Advisory Group and associated Strategy and Delivery Plan, which will be fully consulted on. Our work in this area will help us build a new culture that empowers people to call out
racism, challenge microaggressions, create safe spaces to talk about difficult issues, as well as creating opportunities for people at all levels of our sport to learn about different cultures.
We know this won’t be easy and that this Action Plan is only the start of the process but we are committed to delivering the real and meaningful change that will make our sport the most inclusive in Scotland.
Action Plan
Board Recruitment
| Action | Status | Timeline |
| Recruitment of Chair and new Board members by 30 September 2022. | Initial recruitment phase now complete with Chair and two independent Board members recruited. | Further Board member(s) to be recruited by 28 April 2023. |
| It is recommended that new Board members must not have a relationship with Cricket Scotland, organisations, or individuals that could cause a conflict of interest. | Reflected in recruitment process. | Ongoing. |
| The diversity of the Board members should be a minimum of 40% men and 40% women and ensuring that a minimum of 25% of the total Board makeup come from of Black, South-East Asian, or other mixed or multiple ethnic groups (Getting to Know You survey – club players diversity is 25% from those communities and this should be reflected in the membership of the new Board). | Reflected in recruitment process. New Board members are 75% male, 25% female and 50% from ethnically diverse communities. | Priority is being given to further female appointments with further Board member(s) to be recruited by 28 April 2023. |
| Recruit a permanent Chief Executive Officer (CEO). | Gordon Arthur has been appointed until November 2023 on a fixed-term contract to ensure stability and continuity during this period of substantial restructuring with a recruitment of a permanent CEO to take place this year. | Permanent CEO to be in place by 01 December 2023 with recruitment to start by 01 July 2023. |
Governance review
| Action | Status | Timeline |
| Complete a governance review of Cricket Scotland. | Draft review now complete with findings to be discussed between Cricket Scotland and sportscotland to determine the preferred approach. Consultation will follow with a wide range of interested parties prior to publication and implementation. | To be published 15 March 2023. |
| Action Plan to be developed by Cricket Scotland which addresses the immediate actions and short-term KPIs set out below. The Action Plan should be approved by sportscotland by 30 September 2022. | This initial short-term Action Plan has been approved but will be kept under review to ensure that it delivers against all recommendations and significantly improves not only the systems and practices but also the culture within Cricket Scotland. | Complete. |
| sportscotland to have oversight of progress against the agreed Action Plan. Cricket Scotland to provide weekly update reports to sportscotland on this. | sportscotland has committed to publishing regular progress updates. | 30 September 2022 31 January 2023 28 April 2023 31 July 2023 31 October 2023. |
| Temporary and immediate suspension of WDCU’s role in managing all disciplinary matters. | WDCU Disciplinary matters are currently being managed by Cricket Scotland. | Complete. |
| An urgent, independent review into the overall effectiveness of WDCU’s Management Committee implementation of the disciplinary processes to be completed by 30 September 2022. | An independent report was produced that has been considered as part of the overall governance review. | Complete. |
| Produce Learning and Development plans for all employees. | Currently being implemented following a review of staffing structure. | 28 February 2023. |
| Develop and implement a new disciplinary framework. | Recommendations flowing from the governance review to be implemented by the start of the 2023 season. | 30 April 2023. |
| Train regional workforce in new disciplinary framework. | Recommendations flowing from the governance review to be implemented by the start of the 2023 season. | 30 April 2023. |
| Recruit an Independent Disciplinary Panel. | Conduct in Sport Panel in process of being recruited. Multiple applications received for the panel with further steps being taken to attract more candidates. | Ongoing. |
| Recruit Communications Manager, Disciplinary Manager, HR Manager and EDI Manager. | Head of Communications appointed and specialist HR support contracted. Recruitment for Disciplinary Manager to commence in January. A number of options including interim appointment, secondment and external recruitment being considered for EDI Manager post. | Ongoing. |
EDI
| Action | Status | Timeline |
| Establish anti-racism and EDI Advisory Group. | Terms of reference have been drafted. Eight external members have been written to and invited to an initial meeting to approve the Terms of Reference and input to the anti-racism and EDI Strategy and Delivery Plan. The Advisory Group will report into a new Board EDI sub-Committee. | Ongoing. Group is established with first meeting to be held in early February. |
| Produce an anti-racism and EDI Strategy. | Draft Strategy and Delivery Plan to be further developed by the Advisory Group and stakeholders including Running Out Racism in February 2023. | Ongoing. Final Strategy and associated Delivery Plan to be published on 01 April 2023. |
| Develop and deliver an anti-racism, EDI, and cultural awareness education programme for the paid and voluntary workforce. | This will be a key output of the above strategy and Delivery Plan under the guidance of the Advisory Group. Additional ongoing work to review existing processes and decision making to ensure issues and are gaps are addressed as a matter of priority. | Ongoing. |
| Develop and implement an EDI data management system. | This will be another priority output of the above Strategy under the guidance of the Advisory Group. | To be agreed by Advisory Group. |
| Undertake an annual perception survey and consultation with ethnically and culturally diverse communities, and external stakeholders. | This will be another priority output of the above strategy under the guidance of the EDI Advisory Group. | 28 April 2003. |
| Manage all recruitment to ensure inclusion at the heart of process. | Specialist HR support contracted and in place. | Ongoing. |
| Update policies, procedures, job descriptions and employment contracts with an anti-racism and EDI lens. | Review being undertaken by specialist HR support. All employment contracts being reviewed and changed as necessary. | 01 March 2023. |
| Produce regular internal and external communications on anti-racism and EDI. | This has started but will pick up momentum following the appointment of a new Head of Communications. | Continuous. |
| Review all communications to embed anti-racism and EDI. | This will be another priority output of the above strategy under the guidance of the EDI Advisory Group and Head of Communications. | Continuous. |
Review of Referrals
Following publication of the Changing The Boundaries report in July this year, the number of referrals passed to Cricket Scotland has increased to 77, relating to 43 allegations of racism against 27 different people, two clubs and two Regional Associations. In total there are 52 unique complaints, with nine considered to be non-race related. All 52 complaints have now been reviewed as part of an independent process being led by leading sports law firm Harper MacLeod LLP, UK-wide race equality charity Sporting Equals, and where appropriate, anti-racism campaign group Running Out Racism.
Following the high-level review Cricket Scotland has confirmed that of the 43 complaints that include allegations of racism, 22 require further formal investigation. All complainants have now been contacted in relation to the referral process and Harper Macleod and Sporting Equals have started investigating the initial cases from the 22 that involve potential rule breaches, as well as ingathering further information on 17 which require further clarity before decisions can be taken on the next steps.
Name of Author: Cricket Scotland
Cricket Scotland, formerly the Scottish Cricket Union, is the governing body for cricket in Scotland, based at the National Cricket Academy in Edinburgh. Established in 1908 and restructured in 2001, it became an ICC Associate Member in 1994. The organization includes three sub-associations: the East of Scotland Cricket Association, Western District Cricket Union, and Aberdeenshire Cricket Association.
