Northern Counties and Fort Augustus throw support behind North of Scotland Cricket Association after damning report finds institutional racism at governing body Cricket Scotland
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Scottish cricket has been rocked by the revelation of widespread racism in the national governing body – but clubs have thrown their backing behind the North of Scotland Cricket Association.
Global equality, diversity and inclusion experts Plan4Sport this week published their report looking into racism at Cricket Scotland, documenting 448 incidents and finding that 29 out of 31 tests for institutional racism were failed.
Nosca were consulted by Plan4Sport as one of five regional associations delivering cricket, with the focus on experiences of racism, how Nosca managed racism and other forms of discrimination and how they ensured that cricket in the area was open and inclusive.
Conclusions drawn in regards to the regional associations as a whole included a limited number of off-field racist incidents being referred, but also no reporting or incident management process and no training or expertise provided by Cricket Scotland.
On that front, Northern Counties captain Will Ford believes that better support systems from Cricket Scotland – who saw their entire board resign in anticipation of the Plan4Sport report's findings – are needed to help Nosca move forward.
However, Ford and his counterpart at Fort Augustus were convinced Nosca is a welcoming and inclusive place for anyone to play cricket.
"I'm not quite sure what more Nosca could do without more help from a governing body," Ford reasoned.
"We need more guidance, more help, more people in roles that can make changes.
"Cricket and sport should be there for anybody to enjoy and play, and it shouldn't be a case of people feeling ousted, or like they can't join in on things no matter what level they're at, no matter their religion, their race.
"We're aware that these things happen, even though they shouldn't, but to the best of my knowledge when they have happened they have been dealt with quickly and effectively by the league, learned from and moved on from.
"It doesn't take a lot to be nice and to be accepting of other people, to respect each other.
"It doesn't matter where they've come from, because it's about getting kids and anyone else playing cricket. We're not blessed up here with having thousands of players, so we don't want anybody to be put off.
"There's no quick fix. It's going to be hard work, and it's now about us all working together to make sure these things don't happen again, and make sure we don't get ourselves in a mess with the state of cricket up north."
Fort Augustus captain Kevin O'Meara was similarly hopeful that there was not much racism in Nosca, adding: "Nosca are doing everything they can to try and stamp out any sort of racism.
"We've got five or six Asian players in our team who are very welcome in our club and are part of our family.
"We find playing for Fort Augustus helps welcome them to the area. They should be welcome anyway, because it's not like they're different from anyone else.
"They live here, they work here. We've welcomed all our new members this year and they have really enjoyed being part of our team.
"No such thing as racism should happen in cricket, or in any sport. I actually said to my teammates that if they ever feel uncomfortable while playing a game of cricket, please come and talk to me.
"I'm here, I can help. Thankfully I've not seen any racism problems in the games I've been involved in over the last few years.
"As a captain, it's my responsibility on and off the field that all players feel that they are happy to be where they play, and everyone in our club seems very happy at the moment – if they didn't want to play they would just not turn up."
