Kick It Out appoints former England international as Director for its new project

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Kick It Out, an organisation which works towards racial equality in football, has introduced a new project address and tackle racial discrimination against South Asians in cricket. For this ambitious project, it has announced former England international cricketer Michael Carberry as its Director.

Kick It Out partnered with the England and Wales Cricket Board in January and has received funds worth £100,000 each from England Cricket Board (ECB) and Kick It Out partner Sky Sports. Two months prior to this, the ECB had introduced a 12-point, game-wide plan to get rid of discrimination in sport. This resulted in Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq admitting the reality of racism and explaining his experience as a victim of abuse across two spells at the Yorkshire County.

Carberry will be responsible for identifying and tackling the challenges pertaining to under-representation in the sport. The ace cricketer has been outspoken about the challenges a sportsperson faces for raising their voice against racism. He will be joined by project manager Tom Brown who has been responsible for in-depth research on talent identification and recruitment of talented cricketers from the community. He also had a major role in setting up the South Asian Cricket Academy with Kabir Ali, who is now the assistant coach at Yorkshire.

Kick It Out chief executive Tony Burnett said: “We are thrilled to have Michael and Tom on board to help shape our work with the ECB to drive inclusion and equity in cricket. The level of experience, expertise and insight they bring will be invaluable as we look to understand and overcome some of the challenges the sport presents for participants from under-represented groups. I look forward to working alongside them both.”

The ECB, in its efforts to understand discrimination better, signed off a separate review conducted by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) in March 2021. The ICEC will produce its findings in a report which will be published in autumn this year.