Culture Crisis - Cricket Report Is A Shocking Wake-Up Call: This Is How All Sports Can Do Better

While the relative merits of Bazball continue to be debated, focus has swung away from arguably the most critical challenge that the sport faces: the findings from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (Icec), published at the end of June. Its report, Holding Up a Mirror to Cricket, concluded that: "Cricket is not a game for everyone'"

- Cath Bishop

It's not the first major review of a sport with shocking findings, and it won't be the last. Numerous Olympic and Paralympic sports have had such reviews and been heavily criticised over the past decade. Anne Whyte, a KC, spent two years reviewing the mistreatment of gymnasts, revealing appalling stories of abuse. You'd think by now that sports leaders would be alert to the traps and mistakes of the past. The Icec report reminds us that's not the case, pointing out that similar issues had already surfaced in the 1999 "Clean Bowl Racism" report yet never been addressed.

There are sweepstakes on which sport will be next up to face a culture crisis, with an ongoing review into swimming already uncovering heartbreaking stories.

Although the Icec report highlights a stubborn constituency who remain in denial of the problem, there must surely be many sports leaders thinking that, even if they don't have a crisis now, what should they be doing? We've heard the shocking testimonies that reveal misogyny, racism and sexism, plus the fact that England's women have never played a Test match at Lord's, the "home of cricket", while privately educated schoolboys get annual outings there. Behind those headlines, three key areas resonate loud and clear from the report, which also remind me of lessons from the Whyte review and, for that matter, Louise Casey's report on the Metropolitan Police Service.