Azeem Rafiq: Five-point plan to tackle racism and discrimination published

Rafiq is emotional about racism in Yorkshire.

A full review of dressing-room culture is part of an action plan to tackle discrimination and racism in cricket in England and Wales.

Azeem Rafiq and a number of other players have made allegations.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has pledged £25m over five years, while the five-point plan has 12 tangible actions.

Within six months, a new anti-discrimination unit will be formed by the ECB.

Rafiq told the committee the English game is racist.

Rafiq's allegations have been echoed by a former academy player and another anonymous player.

The regulatory process sounds like the Wild West.

Maurice Chambers, Zoheb Sharif, and Jahid Ahmed have all claimed to have been with Essex.

The government could take the "nuclear option" of creating an independent regulator if the ECB does not address racism, said the sports minister.

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The last few weeks have been very difficult. It feels like an earthquake has hit us.

The world's media has portrayed our game in a bad way. Serious issues which we have not dealt with for many decades have been revealed by Azeem's testimony.

There are a lot of people in the country who feel that cricket has not been there for them. This is the latest attempt to say we are listening and desperate to solve the problem.

The action plan was published by the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Marylebone Cricket Club, the Professional Cricketers' Association, 41 counties, women's regions and the recreational network.

Each of the 12 actions falls under one of the five points.

The setting up of a standardised approach to handling complaints, promoting the aims of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket and providing all who work in cricket with ongoing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) education are some of the things that will be done.
A full review of dressing-room culture in all professional teams is required.
Remove barriers in the talent pathway, improve support for people from diverse background, identify talent from non-traditional background and take action towards reaching a minimum 20% gender diversity and appropriate level of ethnic diversity.
Ensuring venues are welcoming to all faiths and cultures, upgrade education in recreational cricket, and creating welcoming environments for all are some of the things that should be done.
Within six months, each organisation will publish a plan for localised action, which will include a 30% female, representative ethnicity target by April 2022, and an anonymised recruitment tool for all senior roles.

The review will look at every professional men's and women's team in the country.

Gary Ballance allegedly used the term 'Kevin' to describe a person of colour during his four years playing for England.

Ballance played international cricket with eight members of the England men's squad. None of them have commented on Rafiq's allegations.

The impact of recent events has been embraced by the England men in Australia. Harrison said that they had spoken about it.

How does the dressing room continue to evolve its culture, and effectively reflect the feeling that is coming out of the conversation which the game is having at the moment?

Culture and national sentiment have to be moved along with the way the world is changing.

The responsibility for handling complaints and allegations could be given to a third party in order to prevent a conflict of interest.

Harrison said he feels it could have gone further despite the actions detailed in the report.

He said that he was committed to sorting out the issue within the game, when asked about his own future as the ECB chief executive.

Harrison said that he had the support of the game.

We are in the dock for words, words, and no action.

I don't think cricket has ever gotten right. We need to talk to people.

Is there room for a truth and reconciliation exercise? It is very difficult for us to move forward together if we don't know what our history has been like.