Ethnic minorities in search of a level playing field (28 August 1999)

28 August 1999

Ethnic minorities in search of a level playing field

Simon Hughes

Sunday is an important day for cricket in London. Not in NW8, but E11. There, on a Hainault recreation ground, is the second annual six-a-side cricket festival for ethnic minorities. There was an impressive turnout at the event last year from a mix of predominantly black and Asian teams, most of whom exist outside officially recognised club leagues. Most have committed again.

Last year's winners, however, will be absent. Young International was formed in 1988 by a group of talented British Asians (mostly born here of Pakistani parents) who were fed up being regarded as 'third-class citizens' at various English-run clubs. "We didn't eat meat or drink alcohol so we were mostly pushed aside," says their secretary, Tariq Aslam, a clerk in the NHS. With Waqar Younis's help, Young International entered the Barking and Dagenham Post League, in the fourth division. Five years later, they were top of the first.

They borrowed the British Gas sports ground in East Ham until it was built on. No facilities of their own scuppered their attempts to get into a better league. They suffered numerous injuries from park pitches and frequent racist abuse. One match, in Southend, had to be abandoned because of the latter. They were getting nowhere, so despite winning last year's six-a-side, organised by Hit Racism For Six, a pressure group patronised by white and black cricket lovers, they disbanded.

They were not to be defeated, though. Hearing that Eton Manor, a reputable white club in the Leytonstone area, were in danger of folding due to lack of players, they joined en masse during the winter. The club, underpinned by a squad of 15 British Asians from the old Young International, are now third in the Essex Morrant League, a major competition in the county, and top of the Sunday tournament.

This, in microcosm, is what the ethnic minorities could do for our national team. England may be bottom of the world pile but it is nothing a couple of brilliant cricketers in the Waqar/Wasim mould could not change. Even a Saqlain Mustaq would get us a couple of places up the order.

The point about the Asians, in particular, is that they do not have to be led kicking and screaming to play cricket, they do it out of their own volition. It as much part of their culture as watching EastEnders is ours. They should be offered massive encouragement by the authorities to make up for the gross neglect of the past.

The England and Wales Cricket Board seem to be taking an eternity to be convinced of this. They have, it is true, set up a racism study group which, after nine months of moderate probing, report to the main board in six weeks' time. The group's spokesman, Terry Bates, says they are "more fully aware of the need to include ethnic minorities" than they were, and sincerely hopes the ECB will fund their recommendations.

The indications are not promising, though. The ECB have recently announced four pilot schemes targeting inner city areas in Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and East London. A sum of L30,000 is earmarked for each to promote cricket, set up coaching clinics and train coaches. The money (half of which was anyway donated by the Lord's Taverners) is to last three years. "It's not even scratching the surface," says Tariq Aslam. "The ECB should be making drastic changes."

The situation is acute in London, where there are an estimated 1, 500 wandering teams (probably about half black or Asian) and in some boroughs (Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Hackney) only one municipal pitch for them to use. Two coaching schemes set up by the racism study group in East London have been enthusiastically received, but there is a half-hearted feel about the ECB's attitude born, it seems, of either paranoia or lack of vision.

Yorkshire, though, have an Asian open day at Headingley on Tuesday, to which 85 young players have applied. At least it is a start.

The ECB have not yet secured a sponsor for next summer's trination one-day series, and Cornhill Insurance are contemplating withdrawing their Test sponsorship. Still, if the coffers are empty, they could always invite India and Pakistan over to play a series against each other. Now that would be a carnival.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)