Ian Botham: English cricket’s racism report ‘a nonsense’

Former England Test cricket captain Ian Botham has told William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, that the ICEC’s report on racism in cricket is “a nonsense”, and after reading it he threw it on the floor.

Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, Botham discussed the report and his views on it: “I read bits of the report and to be honest I just threw it down on the floor in the end because in my eyes, it’s a nonsense. It was a complete and utter waste of money that could have been well spent on other things within the game. The report has taken at least two and a half years to write, maybe more, and the point is that they are generalising and you cannot generalise. There will be isolated incidents and it can go both ways, it’s not just a one-way street.

“I don’t know where it is but I haven’t played in a dressing room like that, ever. To generalise and paint everyone with the same brush is wrong. I thought a lot of it was heavily loaded and when you read through it everything is anonymous, who is anonymous? Introduce me to Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous.”

No one asked for my thoughts on racism report

Continuing the conversation on the report, Botham added that as someone who had never experienced racism in the dressing room he had never been asked his thoughts on the issue.

“No one’s interviewed me, no one asked me for my thoughts on it,” said Botham. “I don’t know of anyone that was asked and interviewed before this report was put together, so on what grounds and on whose say has it been put together? That’s why I go back to Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous because anyone could’ve written that!

“I don’t know whether it’s just that I’m lucky or whether it’s because people know my thoughts on racism and the stances I’ve made, or the time I’ve spent with Nelson Mandela. He tapped me on the shoulder and said to me ‘you’re my hero’. He said, ‘When I was incarcerated we knew you’d taken a stance against South Africa and apartheid’. I spent a lot of time with him. I shared dressing rooms with one of the Indian greats in Sunil Gavaskar, Alan Mosely, Joel Garner, Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, all these people, and I’d stand here now and say, ‘you find someone that says I’m racist’, because there isn’t anyone out there. You cannot generalise as that document does and you have to be really careful.”

I hope we don’t end up with someone with blood on their hands

Botham went on to talk about whether or not cricket can ever fully recover from the report and the people at Yorkshire whom it affected.

“I think cricket’s reputation is recoverable and there isn’t that much to recover,” stated Botham. “When people actually open their eyes, read it, and look at it, it will recover. With all the stuff that’s gone on at Yorkshire, I just hope we don’t end up with someone with blood on their hands because some of those guys’ lives have almost been totally destroyed through it. They don’t know what they’re supposed to have done, and no one has interviewed them.

“Whoever commissioned that report definitely got it wrong. I think we mustn’t over complicate it now. I’m getting fed up with hearing ‘we’ll review this, we’ll review that’, review what? Just get on with it. It’s very frustrating but I know I can hold my head up high and I know that I have nothing to be ashamed of.”