Owais Shah Questions The Lack Of Black And Minority Coaches In English Cricket Setup

The inhuman killing of George Floyd incident in the United States has triggered massive outrage all over the world. Floyd, who was a black man, was subject to hostile treatment by the cops and breathed his last on the 25th of May. Former English cricketer Owais Shah is among the many, who has come forward and condemned racism.

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Over the past few days, renowned cricketers like Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Lakshmipathy Balaji, and Michael Carberry all have spoken about how they were subjected to it and vigorously opposed it. Sammy, who was part of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, used the term “Kalu” with which his teammates used to address him.

Owais Shah cited Vikram Solanki’s example, who only got the nod as the coach of Surrey a few days ago. Nevertheless, he referred to the bigger picture and questioned the discrimination against Black, Asian, and minority backgrounds. He went on to claim that living in London, which is a racially diverse city, to think very few in the system of non-British descent, are part of coaching roles isn’t acceptable.

“Only eight people of colour [are] in the system we have in England, in the professional system, out of all the coaches and coaching staff and whatever, which is a phenomenal number. I live in London which is such a diverse city, everybody plays cricket that I know, especially people of Asian descent and Caribbean, so to think that only eight people of colour are in the system and in the coaching roles is phenomenal.

I know Vikram Solanki has been appointed as Surrey head coach in the last few days which is really good to see but we’ve got to look at the bigger picture here, why are we in this scenario? Why has this happened?” Owais Shah stated in an interview of Sky Sports.

The best man should always get the job: Owais Shah

The 41-year-old strongly discouraged the method of giving jobs to people based on their colour. The Karachi-born cricketer feels that everyone should be part of the system, and preference must solely be provided based on merit.

“Nobody is saying people should be given a job because of their skin colour, I think there should be a system in place where everyone is encouraged to be a part of the system and then the best man should, of course, always get the job.” he added.

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