Whilst people of South Asian descent compose over 30% of the cricket playing population of England, they represent only 6% of registered coaches. In February 2014, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) commissioned the authors to explore this problem further. We conducted interviews with 33 South Asian cricket coaches and players from Yorkshire and East London. The data were collected over a three-month period and were a mixture of one-to-one, group, face-to-face and telephone interviews, transcribed verbatim and analysed iteratively by the first two authors. Our findings suggest that coaching is perceived as a “low value and low priority” activity in South Asian communities who feel separate from the official systems of governance, both locally and nationally. There is a clear feeling that, in subtle yet pervasive ways, cricket is still run “by white people, for white people”. Participants also suggested that the existing coach education pathways and materials were not as accessible to South Asians, who are often socialised into a different style of cricket that is more open, flexible, creative and attacking than the traditional English style that was perceived to be slow, defensive and technically precise. The lack of visible role models, especially at the county level, was also seen as a major problem, with many of our participants fearing that such roles were not accessible to them. We conclude our paper with three ‘chains’ of recommendations made to the ECB concerning: 1) modifying the system; 2) promoting the value of cricket coaching in South Asian communities; and 3) making coach education and county coaching roles more accessible.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)