Lancashire Cricket: Update on 10-point anti-discrimination action plan
Lancashire Cricket is committed to tackling racism and discrimination and promoting inclusion and diversity at all levels of the game across the North West, covering recreational and elite cricket. We are keen to share our progress to-date and to provide an update on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) action plan.
Following on from the ECB’s action plan which was set out last year, Lancashire Cricket has developed its own 10-point plan, which is detailed below.
Lancashire Cricket will continue to listen and learn from anyone who has experienced or witnessed discrimination in the sport, whether that be at Emirates Old Trafford or further afield from across the county. The dedicated email address equality@lancashirecricket.co.uk has been established as part of an ongoing approach to improving Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion across all aspects of Lancashire Cricket which lies at the heart of our Club strategy. We will, of course, address any past or current issues of this nature.
The Club will be formally publishing its comprehensive EDI Framework document in early July, with ongoing research taking place over the next few weeks across a wide set of community focus groups throughout recreational cricket in the North of England. Lancashire Cricket will take further action based on the findings and recommendations that come out of these focus groups and ensure that the Framework is embedded within the Club’s core values and DNA.
Lancashire Cricket has already made solid progress in the area of gender-diversity at the most senior levels of the organisation. Two out of nine Board members are female and the Executive Team includes four females out of seven. However, we acknowledge that we need – and want – to do more. The Club are looking to add a third female member of the Board by the April 2023 AGM. This is the earliest any new appointments to the Board can be formally ratified as they must go through a rigorous governance process culminating in a Members’ vote at the AGM in April 2023.
We acknowledge that significant progress needs to be made in the area of ethnic diversity. Two Board members are from ethnically diverse backgrounds but there is clear under-representation throughout the broader organisation, in contrast to the diversity that exists throughout the County.
The Club’s ten-point action plan includes elements of work which have already been completed, and others that will take a longer period of time, to ensure long-term and tangible change. They include the following:
Lancashire Cricket – 10-point action plan
- Sport England Gold standard on Board governance by April 23
- Ongoing EDI training to be rolled out Club wide, including anti-discrimination, unconscious bias, and inclusive leadership.
- A three-year cricket recruitment strategy to achieve 22% representation from diverse backgrounds across all coaching roles and 50% gender balance across women’s pathway coaching roles.
- Establish community focus groups across recreational cricket.
- Develop an ‘inclusive facilities and welcoming guest experience’ strategy.
- Establish Lancashire Cricket’s own whistleblowing process.
- On-going review of current dressing room culture at Emirates Old Trafford and ensure the Club’s core values are integrated across the recreational game.
- Develop a Club-wide diverse hiring strategy with a priority focus on increasing diversity in the leadership team.
- Appointment of a Head of Inclusion and Engagement.
- Appointment of an external third-party organisation with depth of diversity to review our plan and monitor progress against it.
Daniel Gidney, Lancashire Cricket’s Chief Executive said: “The Club is fully aware of its responsibility – along with the entirety of English Cricket – to ensure that our game takes every step possible to eradicate discrimination. As a game, we recognise that this is just the start of making cricket a sport where everyone feels welcome and included but realise that there is much more work ahead of us.
“We support the county-wide pledges – which also sit alongside the core values at the heart of the Club – and we fully commit to educating all those in the Lancashire Cricket environment to raise awareness of discrimination, what it represents and the impact it can have.
“This cannot just be about words on paper – we need to take actions which demonstrate that we are on the road to creating a better environment for everyone involved in cricket.
“We continue to work closely with the ECB on the relevant action plans, although we won’t be solely following all their actions. For example, we feel that we need to accelerate diverse representation in our workforce, through targeted recruitment.
“The Club continues to work hard to develop an EDI framework that is genuinely going to make a difference to the community that we serve. This recognises the work that has progressed on gender diversity in recent years, but with a clear focus on increasing wider and more diverse representation throughout the whole organisation.
“We have a very clear 10-point action plan which is top of the agenda at every Board meeting, and we all recognise the importance to ensure that Lancashire Cricket fully represents the wider community of Manchester and the North West region.
“Part of the work we’ve done in the past few weeks has been to listen and speak to those in the wider cricket community in and around Lancashire. This was the last piece of the jigsaw in terms of the initial phase of research. Those recreational cricket community focus groups are hugely important for us to gain a further understanding of the work we still need to do in our area. The Club needs further time to action and embed into Lancashire Cricket the output of these focus groups.
“It is important to acknowledge however the vast amount of fantastic work that goes on across Lancashire and the North West at the grass roots level in many of our diverse communities. There are many people committed to making things better, every day. We must not lose sight of the important activities already happening as we strive to improve things.
“During July, the Club will publicly release its EDI framework, once it has been approved by the Board.”