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The 18 first-class counties have been criticised by the England and Wales Cricket Board for failing to make any progress in increasing the ethnic and gender diversity of their senior leadership.
The annual State of Equity in Cricket Report published on Thursday, which was first commissioned in the wake of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal, shows that minority ethnic and female representation among the county chairs and chief executives has declined since 2019 despite repeated calls for change from the ECB.
Yorkshire’s chief executive, Sanjay Patel, who was previously chief commercial officer at the ECB and managing director of The Hundred, is the only county executive or chair from an ethnically diverse background out of 36.
Lisa Pursehouse was a longstanding chief executive at Nottinghamshire, but left the club in September, with Emma White hired by Leicestershire the same month. Dame Sarah Storey was appointed interim chair of Lancashire in August. The report notes that in 2019 there were two female chief executives and one female chair.
The publication of a State of Equity report was one of 44 recommendations made by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, which reported in 2023 after being set up by the ECB following Rafiq’s complaints about experiencing racism at Yorkshire. Although using ECB data, the report has been moderated by the equality, diversity and inclusion consultant Sports Structures.
“There has been no progress in the gender diversity in Chair and CEO roles in PCCs, and this is a key focus for the coming years,” the report states. “Ethnic diversity across Chair and CEO positions in cricket remains low, and interventions in recent years have not yet led to improvements in representation.”
The ECB has had more success in diversifying its leadership than the counties, with 42% of the governing body’s board female and 33% ethnically diverse.
The State of Equity Report also notes that significant progress has been made in broadening access to county talent pathways, taking cricket into state schools and inner cities through increased funding by the ECB, and clamping down on discrimination through the creation of an independent Cricket Regulator.
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The ECB chair, Richard Thompson, said his ambition is to make cricket the most inclusive team sport in the country, but acknowledged there is still work to do.
“Becoming the most inclusive team sport was an ambition that chief executive Richard Gould and I set for the game, and I am proud that it has been our North Star since it was first proposed,” Thompson said. “There are many positives to reflect on, but we also recognise there is still much more to do, and there are areas where progress is more challenging.
“While I am delighted to see many more women and ethnically diverse people as board members across the game, we need to focus on representation in executive leadership roles to ensure they reflect the communities we serve.”
