These two umpires, Jack Holder and Ismail Dawood, raised issues from their personal experience of the ECB. Holder said it was “more than suspicious” that he hadn’t received a response when offering to become a mentor in the sport, whilst Dawood claimed he had heard racism language used around ECB staff which went under-the-radar.
They’ve demanded an independent investigation from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Dawood stated that he had “no trust or confidence in the ECB”. Dawood has played county cricket for Worcestershire, Glamorgan and Yorkshire prior to becoming an umpire, and has umpired first-class matches. He later went on to say “if that sort of language was used elsewhere, people would lose their jobs”.
"I have absolutely no trust or confidence in the ECB. All the way down to the grassroots it is a complete mess and that is why we need it to be investigated. Do I want to be part of an organisation that is a complete mess? No.”
"The complaints we have made shows the institutionalised, structured racism as well as discrimination, cronyism, bullying and dishonesty that has been part of our lives being involved in the ECB."
Click here to view the ECB’s full statement.