Nosca leaving no room for complacency on racism after damning Plan4Sport report finds governing body Cricket Scotland 'institutionally racist'
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The North of Scotland Cricket Association have moved to reassure anyone involved in the sport that they are not being complacent about racism, following a damning report into looking into Cricket Scotland.
Earlier this week, global equality, diversity and inclusion experts Plan4Sport published a report looking into racism at governing body Cricket Scotland.
They documented 448 incidents, and 29 of the 31 tests for institutional racism were failed.
While it was a severe indictment of Cricket Scotland, regional associations such as Nosca were not criticised so heavily.
All five associations in Scotland were consulted as part of Plan4Sport’s inquiry, detailing 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.
Moves will now be made to enshrine diversity and inclusion into Nosca’s constitution, with the association insisting that despite the more positive findings on their part they will not take the issue lightly.
“The consensus was that the report was shocking,” Nosca vice-president and current Ross County player Chris Blake explained.
“I think it was worse from a Cricket Scotland perspective than anyone anticipated, and the fact that the board resigned the day before it was released came as a real surprise as well.
“The report suggests that there’s institutional racism within Cricket Scotland, but it doesn’t suggest that there’s institutional racism within regional associations like Nosca. We can take a shred of comfort from that.
“What we’re going to do off the back of it is look at our constitution and make sure that we’re up to date and all our paperwork is in place to make sure that Nosca is a diverse and inclusive place to play cricket.
“It would be wrong to say that there isn’t racism in Nosca – we know there have been cases in the past, and there could well be low-level racism happening on a weekly basis. We’re not complacent, but we need to make sure we’re on top of it.
“The problem just now is that every regional association has been left to do its own thing with regards to cases of racism. Really, the governing body – which is Cricket Scotland – should be the organisation that sets the standard on that.
“Hopefully, at the end of this process, there will be tool-kits for associations like ours to learn from, there will be training given.
“What we will seek to do is reassure people that Nosca has always been a diverse place to play cricket, and that we salute and encourage that. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that everyone feels included.”
