Bernie Grant, the Haringey Cricket College & fighting racism in cricket
The long delayed ICEC report on English and Welsh cricket is damning about the levels of discrimination that exist in all areas of the game.
These have not gone entirely unchallenged and the report gives an honourable mention to the Haringey Cricket College.
The College was based at the Selby Centre in North Tottenham between 1984 and 1997. Then as now it is an area of poverty. The establishment of the College was in part the inspiration of a local Councillor and cricket fan Bernie Grant who went on to become the Labour MP for Tottenham.
During its existence the College provided cricket training for young mostly black men and women. It produced 25 cricketers who went on to play First Class cricket an astounding rate of success given what followed.
In 1997 its Lottery funding was halved and the ECB were asked to step in and make up the shortfall. It declined and the ICEC Report details the institutional racism that was no doubt behind that decision.
The legacy of Haringey Cricket College is surely that with effort and funding at the grass roots English cricket can become more diverse at a senior level but only if institutional blocks to that happening are removed.
FULL STORY HERE:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13228