Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack editor and Daily Mail writer
@the_topspin
It was freezing cold in South London on the evening of Tuesday, January 24, but the Oval pavilion was emitting its own kind of warmth. The Long Room had been put at the disposal of the African-Caribbean Engagement programme – acharity chaired by Ebony Rainford-Brent that is changing the way the game is perceived in the country’s most-forgotten cricket community. It may also be changing the way cricket perceives itself. Rainford-Brent, it should be said, is a force of nature – aveteran of 29 white-ball internationals for England, and a dab hand at any sport she has played, including football, basketball, squash and even putting the shot. She brings energy to everything she does, and ACE is lucky to have her. When it comes to diversity in sport, progress can be notoriously slow. Matters must first come to a head – see the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal at Yorkshire – before the authorities commission a report, which then has to be held up to the light. Recommendations are made; there may be a sacking or 16. You’d think the wheels of social justice would be better oiled. But it was clear from the evening at The Oval that change can, in the right hands, happen quickly – perhaps more quickly than even the naturally optimistic Rainford-Brent imagined.
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