FOR once let’s face the truth: the British Empire was built on the back of a rampant wave of merciless colonialism and the influx of immigrants from the former colonies.
Without the blood and sweat of immigrants, majority of whom performed manual work that the indigenous populace frowned upon, such as the cleaning of toilets and street sweeping, gardening and domestic work, among others, there would not have been Great Britain as we have come to know it.
For the purposes of this article I want to focus in particular on the British immigrants of Asian descent, such as the Pakistanis, Indians and the Bangladeshis, among others.
These came from sporting backgrounds dominated by the game of cricket. This was one of the many intersections that brought the Asian immigrants and the English much closer. Naturally, from the basic human point of view, one would have imagined that a factor of common interest such as a sporting code of great public interest would have fostered a greater appreciation of a sense of oneness, of togetherness and, once naturalised, of patriotism.
But, hell, never! The interaction through sport, and in the sporting field for that matter, triggered scorn and discrimination by the English against the Asians in particular.
This abomination has continued to simmer throughout the British history – lasting more than a century. Unbelievable as it may sound, it continues to this day.
Until recently, the England and Wales Cricket Board succumbed to relentless claims of racism and white supremacy throughout the game, and instituted a commission of inquiry to probe the claims and proffer advice and guidance on the remedial action.
For most British-Asians and other people of colour, the findings of the commission were least surprising. They confirmed what the majority of the minority households dine on daily, albeit in hushed tones: racism in cricket is alive and kicking and perpetrators dish it out with impunity.
The report was written by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket and was titled: “Holding up a Mirror to Cricket.”
And then, what the England and Wales Cricket saw in the mirror was a cause of great public embarrassment. In short, the Commission, commissioned by the ECB, sport’s official governing body, discovered “a culture in which overt discrimination often goes without serious challenge, and prevailing attitudes of interpersonal racism, sexism and other discriminatory practices are commonplace”.
This is not yesterday’s Britain, no. It is today’s Great Britain that shouts at other countries for their alleged excesses and human rights violations. This is the mighty England that projects itself as the champions of adherence to international law. This is the Britain that allegedly subscribes to the rule of law that guides the country’s foreign policy. From the disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson to the incumbent, first Indian Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, unwavering proxy war against Russia is premised on the proclaimed defence of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Yet at home, bona fide British citizens of Asian descent continue to be subjected to the worst human rights abuse mankind has ever known – racial discrimination. Their sin? The colour of their skin. Their own fellow country-men have turned them into objects of ridicule and scorn. Not even their excellent talent in the field of play, or their polished mannerism and attitude toward others could win them any amount of popularity or cause them to be spared from the ignominy of racism, sexism and class discrimination.
To be a British-Asian is a yoke that millions carry in today’s Great Britain. Publicly, the cricket authorities put up a façade of a hunky-dory inter-racial co-existence. Yet in truth, as the Commission found this week, the disingenuous public display of harmonious inter-racial co-existence is nothing but a blue lie, a fallacy that the authorities have known about for donkey’s years, and did absolutely nothing about it.
And now, in the wake of the much-publicised Commission’s adverse findings, the ECB is clutching at straws, shedding crocodile tears. Predictably, they have done the first thing the Commission implored them to do – publicly apologise.
But, ask any victim of systematic racial discrimination, particularly at the hands of fellow team-mates who masquerade as “friends” on the pitch. Nothing hurts the worst. The English cricket players and their administrators are a bunch of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Where they are concerned, what you see is not what you get. They are a bunch of dangerous racists who have perfected the art of concealment. That is exactly what the Commission of Inquiry has found them to be. Masters of racial discrimination – with impunity, damnit!
The extended wave of discrimination by the English players was not restricted to the British-Asian players. The Commission found that furthermore, women’s cricket and black Caribbean cricket players were also at the receiving end of racists who play and run the heavily-sponsored ECB.
The Commission was chaired by Cindy Butts, a black woman who was visibly at pains about what she had unearthed. Academic Dr Michael Collins, who was also part of the four-person Commission, made a damning conclusion about the can of worms they found in the England and Wales Cricket, saying: “We conclude that elitism, alongside deeply rooted and widespread forms of structural and institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination are pervasive across the game of cricket in England and Wales. Class prejudice is pervasive. Racism is still entrenched in cricket. Women are marginalised and routinely experience sexism and misogyny.”
On the plight of black cricket players who flocked to the game in the aftermath of WWII (1939-1945) when Great Britain need cheap labour from Jamaica and across the Caribbean islands, Dr Collins remarked as follows: “The historical injustices suffered within the game of cricket by black Britons in the post-war period – so many lives ruined – may be acknowledged but can never be fully compensated for.”
This, for me, is the crux of the matter: “so many lives ruined”. Additionally, “can never fully be compensated for”. This is the part that the ECB better get the hang of. The damage that the institution has caused is irreparable. No amount of sorry words, of apologetic statements through the current English cricket captain or his bosses in the ECB can erase the pain and hurt and deep scars caused by deliberate act of subjugating fellow players and citizens all because of the colour of their skin.
The ECB, and those that it represents, ought to go and hang their heads in shame. The game’s administrators have pledged to correct the malady within the next three months. My verdict? Impossible! You cannot correct a generation-old societal problem overnight. Many English players have been socialised to believe that their racist behaviour is acceptable. That sexism is normal. That to be elitist is cool and that exclusionism is proper behaviour. To undo such deep-seated behavioural trades is no child’s play. Racism has been internalised among too many, and unleashed as if though it were a not-to-worry kind of behaviour.
One hopes that for humanity’s sake, the cricket administrators in the ECB will do the honourable thing – take their jacket from the chairs and leave, en masse. Cricket needs and deserves a fresh start, and cannot do so with dead, racist wood.
In line with the mantra “nothing about us, without us”, the ECB need to have the victims atop the game’s administrative structures to make things right. Perpetrators of racism cannot turn the champions of anti-racism overnight. Unless, and until people of colour assume the leadership of the game in Great Britain, the story of hunting will continue to be told from the standpoint of the hunters, instead of the hunted.