Anderson and Carberry speak out on racism in cricket

The police brutality against George Floyd and the subsequent protests in the United States have sparked a debate all around the world. With more and more people awakening to the subtle existence of racial discrimination in our daily lives, the cricketing world has not been left too far behind either. Recently, Jason Holder had hinted that the Windies might “take the knee” during their upcoming test series against England.

Now, former England cricketer Michael Carberry has brought to light the existence of racial discrimination that unfortunately exists even in cricket. "Cricket is rife with racism. The issue you have in cricket is, the people running the game don't care about black people in it. Black people are not important to the structure of English cricket,” Carberry said, talking on the Cricket Badger podcast.

Carberry also bemoaned the lack of diversity among the people in power in English cricket. "If you look around English cricket at the moment, where the important decisions are made, name one black man in those positions? Which black man has ever had the opportunity to make the big decisions on English cricket? Not one. Look at England head coaches. When has there been a black head coach? Never. Any black captains? Look around county cricket. How many black coaches are there in county cricket? Not one. I know people who are more than equipped to do the job. If I was a young black boy now, who am I looking at that can inspire me?” Carberry lamented.

Carberry also recalled an event that made him quit a club, saying, "I've almost come close to making a coach spit 32 [teeth] out on the ground for stuff that he said to me. He said: 'I couldn't see you in the dark' and 'What are the brothers having tonight? Bit of fried chicken and rice and peas tonight?' I had to drag him out on the balcony. He literally hung his head like a little child. Bear in mind, I'm putting my career [on the line] and it probably ended up being the final nail in my coffin in that club. I won't name the club.”

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England fast bowler and Carberry’s teammate James Anderson has expressed his disgruntlement with the lack of equality in the game. "That's just not okay,” Anderson said. "As a game, we need to actively make this game for everyone. It can't keep going the way it is. It's just not okay.” Words mean very little if they do not translate into actions, and Anderson was proactive in his approach to help the cause, saying "Absolutely I expect that to be a conversation we have. It's made me do a lot of thinking. We will have conversations about what we can do as players to make a stand, definitely.”

Anderson admitted that he might have taken a passive approach in addressing the matter, but the recent developments across the world have made him more conscious of the role he could play. "It's something as players and a game we need to be more active," he said. "It's made me think, have I experienced racism on a cricket field? I couldn't remember any instances. I wasn't in New Zealand when Jofra [Archer] was racially abused. It made me think and it made me think have I turned a blind eye to things? I'd try to support my team-mates if they did suffer any sort of abuse but have I been active in supporting them?”

[Cricbuzz inputs]