Diversity in the Cricket Commentary Box: Gender and Racial Inclusivity Not Enough

Channel 9’s “pale, male and stale” commentary line-up.

Ahead of the Ashes, the Australian broadcaster Channel 9 is receiving some flak. Its commentary line-up for the latest instalment of cricket’s oldest rivalry, has been widely derided as lacking diversity: pale, male and stale, as the cliché goes. There have rightly been calls for cricket to do its bit to improve society by including the voices of women and people of colour. A typical example, from the Guardian:

There are a host of highly-qualified, popular women who commentate… Mel Jones, Lisa Sthalekar, Alison Mitchell, Charlotte Edwards, Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent (first black woman to play for England) and Isa Guha (Englishwoman of Bengali descent). Names like the popular Michael Holding or Harsha Bhogle, who would provide some international perspective, might also be considered.

Those names would no doubt add different perspectives and bring in some additional viewers. They would also go some way towards addressing historical injustices – women, for example, couldn’t get into any Australian commentary boxes at all till very recently.

However, none of those names will fundamentally change the nature of how cricket is covered. Currently commentators make no attempt to place the game in its wider context, because most are ex-cricketers who have only ever played cricket in their lives. But as CLR James asks in Beyond a Boundary, what do they know of cricket who only cricket know?

If we’re talking about the social values cricket and its broadcasts should embody and live, we have to go beyond its current contours.

Beyond a Boundary

CLR James of Trinidad: Marxist, author of ‘Beyond a Boundary’ and one of the best commentators ever on cricket.

Some of the game’s best commentators, to use the term in the general sense, have been non-players. Marxists CLR James and Mike Marqusee wrote eloquently about cricket’s role of in the evolution of societies as diverse as the West Indies and India. In years gone by, Tony Cozier would use his deep knowledge of Caribbean society to enlighten Channel 9’s viewers about what the game meant to its people. John Arlott’s erudition enabled him to be a passionate advocate of the cricketing boycott of apartheid South Africa. Neville Cardus was great, because his other occupation as a music critic sharpened his pencil.

Sadly no modern TV pundit has the ability to place the game in its wider context. Thus, during this Ashes we are likely to get a fine deconstruction of young batsman Cameron Bancroft’s forward defensive, but no informed analysis of the industrial strike that threatened the Ashes. We will hear a lot about Moeen Ali’s offspin, but nothing on his status as a Muslim icon during a time of rising Islamophobia in the UK.

Cricket, especially Test cricket, is a long game. There are quiet passages when commentators have time to talk about all manner of things other than the game in front of them. The game’s natural rhythms (breaks between overs, lunch and tea) also ought to afford plenty of opportunities to discuss how it should play its full part in society:

• Australian Test teams have featured plenty of white players of East European descent (Simon Katich, Michael Kasprowicz, Len Pascoe) but there have been none from other major immigrant groups like the Vietnamese or Chinese. What explains this failure of integration, and what might be done about it?
• The ICC once banned Moeen Ali from wearing wristbands supporting Palestine. Is that a case a governing body placing reasonable restrictions, or should we take the view that sport between nations should belong in the Commons and therefore players should have freedom of expression on the field?
• Could allowing Pakistani cricketers to play in the IPL contribute to friendlier relations between the two countries?
• What do racial quotas in South African cricket teams teach civil society about positive discrimination?
• Is the decline of the West Indies as a Test nation related to the decline of the black consciousness movements that so influenced Viv Richardsand co?

Throughout its long history cricket has been intertwined with society and politics. Englishmen of the Victorian era used it as a tool of Empire, Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq once diffused geopolitical tension by flying in to attend a Test in Jaipur, Nelson Mandela employed Hansie Cronje to improve race relations in South Africa. So for TV to not examine the larger implications of the sport is a disservice to the public. BBC Radio does it to a limited extend on Test Match Special, but we need the most important broadcast medium to get on board.

Diversity of Background

“Corner of a foreign field” by Ramachandra Guha

Of course examining weighty issues of politics and society would require commentators schooled in history, philosophy, economics etc., not just cricketing techniques. It would also require enlightened cricket boards open to criticism, but that’s perhaps a matter for another time.

If Channel 9 wants to properly increase diversity next time, it could consider adding to its roster the historian, public intellectual and sometime BCCI bigwig Ramachandra Guha. Equally apt would be the preeminent rural reporter, Magsaysay Award winner and Test cricket nut P. Sainath. For a woman, they need look no further than the lilting voice of the Barbadian lawyer Donna Symmonds, sadly not heard on the airwaves anymore.