Two bodies’ handling of revelations of racism and sexism could hardly be going worse, and sorry is not going to be enough
So, how’s that Ashes phoney war going? Back at the beginning of November the headline problem in English cricket was who would bowl in the death overs now Tymal Mills was injured. Three weeks later, the government is threatening to bring in an independent regulator to oversee the ECB, whose chief executive, Tom Harrison, is fighting to hold on to his job, because England’s most successful county club, which has lost its CEO and chairman and suspended its head coach, has been called institutionally racist, while a slew of current players and commentators have been accused of racist and discriminatory behaviour.
Less than a week ago Australia were celebrating their first-ever World T20 Trophy. Now they have lost their Test captain, Tim Paine, because of a sexting scandal that happened the last time England were in Australia, in 2017. Paine sent an unsolicited “dick pic” to a female employee of Cricket Tasmania with the caption “finish me off right now”. Four years later, she has, and now Australia have got a fortnight to find a replacement. Cricket Australia cleared Paine of breaching their code of conduct in an investigation they held at the time, but now it’s finally gone public, have decided that they don’t “condone his language or behaviour” after all.
