YESTERDAY’S Independent Commission for Equality in Cricket report sent shockwaves through the sport.

The ICEC was commissioned after Azeem Rafiq made allegations of deeply entrenched racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

His interview in September 2020 shone light on Yorkshire’s failure to address systemic use of racist or discriminatory language over a long period of time.

It led to six former Yorkshire players being sanctioned over the use of racist language and sparked wider examinations over the sport’s inclusivity across the gender and race spectrum.

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However, clubs in Dorset have for some time been widening their appeal and extending welcomes to people of all backgrounds.

Governing body Dorset Cricket has long championed sessions for disabled, young and under-privileged cricketers from all corners of society.

A fine example of this comes at Dorchester Cricket Club, who are widely seen as ahead of the game on all matters of diversity in the sport.

Three players of south Asian heritage in Sathiya Narasimhan, vice-captain Gautham Rajendar and Krish Subramanian all play for Dorchester’s highly-successful first team. Raj Lehal is also heavily involved with coaching.

Their inclusion is proof of a broader appeal to the Asian community in Dorchester, with the club welcoming growing numbers of new players to training sessions.

Dorchester also have a burgeoning women’s section, in both hard-ball and soft-ball cricket, plus a dedicated girls setup.

And three Dorset Disability stars in Tom Best, Charlie Thomas and Leon Richer play for Dorchester Thirds on a Saturday plus Dorchester Colts on the Evening League circuit.

With inclusivity at Dorchester well advanced, chairman Mark Derrien is proud of the club’s efforts so far.

“We’re not reacting to the ICEC report, we’re ahead of it,” he told Echosport.

“We’ve recognised ourselves at Dorchester that we’re (mostly) white and middle-class and that needs to change.

“Our figures absolutely support the fact that we are established as a leader in disability and women’s cricket with a diverse membership.

“We’re also one of the most reasonably-priced clubs because we get our money from sponsors and our bar and other areas.

“We’re fortunate to give that cheap offer for cricket. I read that report and I think Dorchester already do that.

“And it’s not luck, it’s from real commitment to it from years past.”

With the infrastructure in place, Dorchester are now policing their players to preserve their inclusive environment.

Any hint of poor behaviour, however minor, is cracked down on immediately to the point that Derrien revealed some players have previously been expelled from that club.

He said: “The important thing is that you challenge that low-level behaviour.

“Once you get somebody saying something you don’t support, you challenge it at the lowest level.

“We’ve given players written warnings, not for racism, and we’re quite authoritative in how we manage our players.

“We set high standards and we sort it out at that low level, so it doesn’t give poor practice and unwelcome racist behaviour a chance to establish itself.

“The moment a person in authority hears it, it goes through our safeguarding manager.

“If it doesn’t change, the players leave Dorchester. We’ve done that, we’ve expelled players.

“A good few have left us because they don’t meet our values.”

Derrien added: “Sometimes in sport, clubs might say: ‘We’re not racist’ and I think that’s an OK starting point.

“But, what we’ve done at Dorchester is we’ve looked into it and done a huge amount of work in that, so we’ve moved on from there.”

So, cricket as a whole still has a long way to go on the diversity and inclusivity front.

Dorchester, alongside many other clubs in Dorset, are showing just how easy it is to create a welcoming atmosphere for all.

The onus is now on other clubs to be proactive, rather than reactive.