When our reporter called out double standards in sport, the response was startling

When an individual reacts to a good piece of journalism by dropping the “C-bomb”, you can assume you have hit a nerve. When that person happens to be one of the nation’s best-known sports broadcasters, the fallout can be significant.

Just over a week ago, The Independent’s chief sports writer, Jonathan Liew, wrote a fine column about the response to Jofra Archer’s selection in the England squad to face Pakistan in a series of one-day cricket matches. In particular, he called attention to the expressions of anxiety in some quarters that picking Archer risked upsetting the “culture” of the team, or its morale ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

This concern appeared to be premised on Archer being selected immediately on becoming eligible for England, having been born and raised in Barbados. But, as Liew noted, plenty of other foreign-born players have been picked for England soon after completing their qualification period. The selection of these white players had not been greeted in the same way.

One of those identified by Liew as expressing doubts over Archer’s call-up was the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew, whose response was to accuse Liew of “playing the race card” and to demand an apology in a series of direct messages on Twitter in which he repeatedly called his fellow journalist a “c***”. Agnew has subsequently been reprimanded by the BBC, and the incident (coinciding as it did with the now infamous Danny Baker tweet, which provoked instant dismissal from the Beeb) has been widely reported by national newspapers.

Plainly such abusive language is appalling. But specific obscenities aside, it is the instinctive defensiveness which is striking. None of us particularly likes to have our views or motives questioned, especially in public – and particularly on such sensitive issues as raised by Liew in his article.

But as one of the few senior Bame sports writers working in this country, Liew’s clear insights into the subconscious use of loaded language by journalists when talking about black and ethnic minority players are important and deserve to be examined with genuine self-reflection. They don’t deserve to be met with thoughtless, arrogant abuse.

For cricket in particular, the issue of race is a complex one. Football has seen its fair share of overt racist incidents of late; they are not mirrored precisely in our national summer sport – and yet it is an indisputable fact that the number of black or mixed-race players in county cricket who are eligible for England is paltry (eight, when the BBC counted last August). There are a number of reasons for that, but might one of them be a sense that the sport is not as inclusive as it could be?

Jofra Archer could be a role model for a new generation of black cricketers. Here’s hoping he gets the chance – and the welcome – he deserves.

Yours,

Will Gore
Executive Editor