Essex CCC: ECB says county fall ‘significantly short’ of diversity targets and are at risk of sanctions | Cricket News

The England and Wales Cricket Board has said Essex County Cricket Club have fallen “significantly short” of targets to tackle racism and promote inclusion and diversity in the game.

The ECB added that “sanctions may be considered if sufficient progress is not made within agreed deadlines” as on Tuesday they published their third update on the implementation of their action plan.

In a statement, the ECB said: “Following publication of the action plan in November 2021, the county cricket network has achieved significant progress to increase Board diversity in line with the targets of 30% female representation and locally representative ethnicity by the end of April 2022.

“In the last six months, more than 30 organisations have appointed at least one new Non-Executive Director (NED) to their Board, with many of these involving major recruitment processes appointing multiple NEDs.”

At an individual level, the ECB understands that 80 per cent of county organisations (40 of 50 entities) have now met their Board diversity targets.

The ECB has granted extensions to a further nine county organisations in line with the “comply or explain” provision, which allows for additional time to be provided where an organisation has made positive progress in recent years and established clear action plans but has been unable to meet the deadline for genuine practical or constitutional reasons.

The ECB will continue to monitor and support each of these counties to ensure appropriate progress is made.

The ECB said it has placed Essex CCC in a “non-compliance process” as they “have fallen significantly short of their targets and do not yet have a clear action plan to deliver change within an appropriate timescale”.

As part of this process, the ECB said: “Essex CCC must provide an updated action plan for approval by the ECB and sanctions may be considered if sufficient progress is not made within agreed deadlines.”

Sky Sports News is contacting Essex for comment on the report.

More to follow…