Australia’s diverse communities, particularly those from South Asia, are finding social connections and a sense of belonging through cricket, a new report says.

The report, titled ‘It’s not just cricket: sport, social cohesion and belonging’ by writer and journalist Vanessa Murray, looks at the important role cricket plays in creating culturally safe spaces and fostering a sense of belonging for diaspora communities across the country.

The report, commissioned by the Scanlon Foundation, argues cricket has become a vital tool for social cohesion and calls for greater recognition and inclusion within Australian sport.

It says Australia and South Asia have many things in common, including a mutual love of cricket. And that cricket is an influential factor for many South Asians when choosing to migrate to Australia.

Over the past two decades, as Australia’s South Asian diaspora has steadily increased, the presence of South Asian Australians in cricket has increased.

“Just as the face of Australia – one of the most multicultural nations in the world – is changing, so too is the face of Australian cricket,” the report says.

However, participating in Australian cricket is not as easy as many South Asian-Australians imagine.

The reasons for this, include the cost of playing cricket; a lack of systems literacy; a clash of cultures and cultural identities; visa status and requirements; systemic and individual bias; discrimination and racism; language and religious barriers; gender norms; inequitable access to resources; lack of cultural and psychological safety; lack of representation; lack of childcare; non-inclusive policies and practices, and the Anglocentric nature of the Australian cricketing ecosystem, the report says.

“To overcome these challenges, members of the South Asian diaspora have started their own cricket clubs. In a multicultural cricket club environment, participants can create and be in control of their cricketing experiences. They are in charge of decision-making and selection processes,” it says.

“They are free to speak their languages of choice, and to express, celebrate and explore their cultural identities within and through their love of cricket.

“Multicultural club cricket has emerged and grown inside and at times, outside of the Australian cricketing ecosystem – a federated hierarchy involving all levels of government that is heavily reliant on a volunteer economy and its love of cricket to keep grassroots community clubs going.”

The report says many South Asian migrants share an awareness of Australia’s cricketing prowess and an expectation and desire that they will be able to participate in cricket as a means of finding community and a sense of belonging.

It says for first and second-generation South Asian-Australians, playing cricket was a way to feel connected to their parents’ or grandparents’ birthplace, to create identity and self-worth, and a sense of belonging.

“However, their experiences of Anglocentric Australian cricket clubs and pathways have not always been positive. This is caused by complex, ingrained systemic, cultural and intersectional challenges to access and inclusion that are experienced both individually and collectively by diaspora populations, and that subject members of the diaspora to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation,” the report says.

It says Cricket Australia is increasingly keen to bring the South Asian diaspora into the fold by increasing its presence in all realms of cricket and has this at the heart of its first Multicultural Action Plan, which commits to strengthening its position as a sport for all.

Among the plan’s end goals are further positioning cricket as a vehicle for social cohesion, and getting more multicultural community members playing cricket, attending games, or following the sport, the report says.

The Scanlon Foundation report has come up with some recommendations for improving Australian cricket’s embrace of diverse communities, including: critiquing and improving systems literacy for becoming involved in playing, volunteering, including coaching and umpiring, for new migrants and new club members; increase multicultural presence in cricket boards and executive leadership teams, in line with target participation rates; finding new ways to recognise and reward community cricket club volunteers, including managers, coaches and administrators, and; improving  data collection to better understand who is playing and volunteering in cricketing spaces around Australia, and how their experiences and cultural safety can be enhanced.

They also include: increasing regulation of coaches and umpires and find ways to standardise and improve performance in these spaces, for example through cultural safety training and certification; increasing cultural safety for multicultural teams and players in Anglocentric clubs, games and tournaments and within cricketing pathways; reconfiguring cricket by involving the South Asian diaspora in its reimagining, for example through co-design, and; ensuring equitable access to resources and facilities for all grassroots community clubs, including newly formed multicultural clubs, throughout Australia.

Read the full report: It’s not just cricket: sport, social cohesion and belonging – The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute