Cricket needs diversity from all sides

Cricket needs diversity from all sides

Rich Clarke
Cricket needs diversity from all sides.jpeg

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Earlier this week John Digby Jones was so angry at presenter Alex Scott dropping her Gs when hosting the BBC’s Olympics coverage that the Labour Peer took to Twitter. “She says ‘fencin, rowin, boxin, weighliftin and swimmin’, he said. “I can’t stand it anymore. Enough!’”

As you might expect, Scott posted a punchy response. “Proud of the young girl who overcame obstacles, and proud of my accent! It’s me, it’s my journey, my grit.” Then the usual factions piled in, saying the usual things and the storm in this particular teacup quickly blew over with no-one learning a thing.

However, the episode scratched the scab off an issue that has bothered me over the past few years – the voice of cricket in this country.

The way this nation speaks to itself has changed in recent times. The cut-glass BBC accent is getting rarer. For many years now, regional accents have been heard on mainstream channels not just as guests but in leading positions as presenters and in the continuity links. While advertisers know that if you want to sell something then old-style authority figures are out, authentic chumminess is in.

In sport, female faces and voices have lagged behind but, in the last couple of years rapidly become a welcome sight and sound on our screens. Scott has barged her way to the forefront because she is fresh, exceptionally well-researched and cliché-free. Though she still gets horrific flak from football ‘gammons' on social media.

I like to think cricket has been a little ahead of the game here. While I am sure the road has been steep and bumpy with much greater parity still required, I sense the Isa Guha, Alison Mitchell and Ebony Rainford-Brent et al have enjoyed quicker and more widespread acceptance for their professionalism. For me, Australia’s Mel Jones is among the best presenters in the game.

But gender representation is only part of the diversity question that cricket’s voice has to address. In his tweet, Digby Jones made no mention of his background as head boy of Bromsgrove School, an independent educational establishment. But Scott knew where he was aiming, hence she started her response with: “I’m from a working-class family in East London, Poplar, Tower Hamlets & I am proud”.

English cricket has always been class-ridden but one of my biggest concerns right now is the public-school dominance on and off the pitch. If this game is to resonate with the general population then early state education is key. Longitudinal data by ESPN Sports Poll in the US suggests the post-war boom and recent slump of American Football and baseball is closely linked with participation in schools. English cricket’s demise certainly appears correlated with its departure from your average playground.

Only seven per cent of the UK is educated in the ‘independent’ sector and yet, according to the 2020 Cricketers’ Who’s Who, 45 per cent of the players educated in this country were private pupils. A 2019 study revealed England international cricketers are more likely to be privately educated than peers in the House of Lords. If you suggest this is largely down to scholarships then you must ask yourself why you are spending more time trying to undermine the question than find the answer.

There is a lot going on here; the changing nature of British society, its politics and its values. Also, clubs not schools have been the focus of numerous ECB schemes. But suffice to say when I read sections on “schools crickets” I am yet to see mention of my tatty, beige comprehensive school from a forgotten corner of Essex. Likewise, I rarely hear accents and attitudes similar to those I heard in its classrooms within the cricket media.

Test Match Special has been mindful of the issue for many years. When Henry Blofeld hung up his mic in 2017 he was quoted as saying his plummy accent would give him a “certain disadvantage” these days. Admirably, the show has looked in different places for different voices but, far too often, found someone from the same background.

The commentators on the BBC county circuit are, to a man, excellent. Actually, make that ‘to a white middle-aged man’. There is a balance to be struck between competence and the need for diversity. Cricket is a nuanced, historical and very long game. A breadth of experience helps communicate the play and fill dead air. I tend to watch the YouTube streams on mute and listen to the BBC commentaries because the in-house teams pale in comparison to what the men, and thankfully a couple of women, from Auntie can offer.

On television, the Hundred fished from the existing commentator pool but, in the stadium and online, it has tried to influence the youth market by using fresh faces and… well… influencers. It is one of the few areas in which I applaud this monstrous tournament. However, the PR puff they spout will have little shelf-life.

County cricket needs to find its Alex Scotts and push back against its John Digby Joneses. Not to provide diversity through tokenism but to start wrestling control from dominant minorities and to communicate cricket in a way that nods to its rich history, explains its subtleties and connects a new audience.

* This article first appeared in The Cricket Paper, get it every Sunday or subscribe here

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