Icec chair slams ECB for lack of ‘moral backbone’ over Botham comments
The England and Wales Cricket Board showed a lack of a “moral backbone” for failing to call out Ian Botham after he claimed a landmark report about racism, sexism and class-based discrimination in the game was “nonsense”, MPs have been told.
Lord Botham said last year that he had thrown the 300-page report from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, which found racism was entrenched in cricket, on the floor after reading it, as it was a “complete and utter waste of money”, while no one he knew had been asked to contribute to it.
However the author of the report, Cindy Butts, told MPs on the culture, media and sport committee on Tuesday that the former England all-rounder, who is now chair of Durham, had spoken “a number of untruths”.
“We did invite Lord Botham to give evidence to us,” Butts told MPs, “He didn’t respond. The county which he chairs, Durham, contributed to our call for written evidence and we thank them for that.
“He said he didn’t know anybody who had contributed to our report when, in fact, a number of well-known named cricketers such as Heather Knight, the England women’s captain, gave evidence to us. So there are a number of untruths that he spoke about the report.
“Lord Botham has a right to his opinions. But the most disappointing thing for me is that he is a chair of a first-class county.”
Butts, who is Icec chair, also warned that Botham’s response could undermine anyone within his county who may suffer racism, sexism, or class-based discrimination.
“What confidence can they have if they are subject to discrimination, to come forward and be able to talk about their experiences and have confidence that something could be done about it?” Butts asked.
“I was personally disappointed, not least because he’s a sporting hero of mine. In fact, I would say the impact that Lord Botham had on me as a young working-class woman growing up in Shepherd’s Bush was really quite profound.
“To see his blossoming relationship with Vivian Richards and the way in which they were both rivals, but they had a deep respect for one another. And their friendship and their love was clearly displayed for all to see. That had a profound effect on me.”
While Butts expressed confidence in the ECB’s new leadership to tackle racism and other forms of discrimination, she did criticise the governing body for failing to “call out” Botham for his comments.
“The ECB didn’t see fit to come out and actually say: ‘This is wrong,’” she said. “And I think that not only did they stay quiet, they resisted calls from stakeholders and people who were concerned about Botham’s comments and they chose to stay silent. I think they should have had a moral backbone on this issue.”
Later in the three-hour session on discrimination in cricket, the chair of the ECB, Richard Thompson, pushed back against the criticism and told MPs he had privately called Botham to ask why he had made his comments.
“My feeling was that we’re trying to reconcile, we’re trying to move forward and heal,” he said. “Lord Botham’s entitled to his views. I didn’t agree with them. I made it very clear to him that I didn’t agree with them. But we live in a democracy and he’s allowed to say those things.”
MPs also heard that Yorkshire whistleblower Azeem Rafiq’s family home had been attacked again last week. That news was revealed by John Nicolson MP, who was especially critical of the failure of Yorkshire’s chairman, Colin Graves, for failing to apologise in person to Rafiq.
Graves has pledged to rescue Yorkshire from financial ruin for a second time after returning to the club this month. However it was under his previous tenure that Rafiq suffered racism.
“Why wasn’t it appropriate to phone him?” asked Nicolson.
“I just had plenty of things going on around not to pick up the phone to Mr Rafiq,” Graves replied.
“So over this long period of time with this huge controversy, with this man experiencing this appalling behaviour, including just last week – an attack on his parents’ home – and you had too many things going on to phone him?”
“I’ve been out of cricket, Mr Nicolson, since September 2020,” replied Graves. “I have not been involved with running any form of cricket until I just got back in work with Yorkshire 11 days ago.”
“You didn’t need to be involved in cricket to phone him and to apologise for what had happened under your tenure,” Nicolson retorted.
The ECB showed a lack of backbone in failing to call out Ian Botham’s criticism of a report on discrimination, the chair of the report commission has told MPs
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