"...One is playing cricket and the other is not."

In recent days, while we have been enjoying the contest for the Ashes between England and Australia in both men's and women's cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) received a report into racism, sexism and class-based discrimination.

The chair of the ECB penned an open letter to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) chair, Cindy Butt, which makes for some extraordinary reading.

"The findings of your report, based on over 4000 contributions from those involved in cricket at all levels, speak for themselves," he said.

"Cricket should never exclude anyone on the basis of their ethnicity, gender or social background.

"We apologise unreservedly for these experiences, and are thankful for the courage of those who have shared them with the ICEC, whilst recognising there will be many more who felt unable to give their accounts."

The report, commissioned in 2021, was the result of a complaint by former Yorkshire player, Azeem Rafiq.

Rafiq, the former England under-19 and Yorkshire captain, first raised his concerns about racism in an interview with Wisden cricket magazine during 2020.

The report, released on June 27th and titled, Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket, arrived at the following conclusions:

• Racism is entrenched in cricket.

• Women are marginalised and routinely experience sexism and misogyny.

• There is little to no focus on addressing class barriers in cricket.

• The complaints system is confusing, overly defensive and not fit for purpose.

• The systems in place to ensure equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) require significant improvement.

Engaging with Test cricket is my favourite pastime.

The intrigue of a chess game wrapped into five days, with heroic acts set against subtle momentum shifts often within a two-hour session of play.

It's an emotional game.

And sometimes cricket is so much more.

From the infamous Bodyline Series of the 1930s, which tested loyalty to the Mother Country and continues to capture the imagination of cricket pundits, to World Series Cricket and Rebel Tours to apartheid South Africa, the game has often been as much about social issues as it has been competition.

There are plenty in the community who say that sport and politics shouldn't intertwine.

What they are actually saying is that sport and social issues that make us feel uncomfortable should not intertwine.

Sport is culture and culture is sport.

Sport is not government, that is an excuse and an oversimplification aimed at employing the adage "you shouldn't talk about politics" to disengage from difficult conversations.

Politicians talk about sport because, either, it impacts the everyday lives of their constituents, or they have a genuine interest, or both.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff speaks of sport because he knows that it is an underpinning element of our culture and way of life, although he often 'over-eggs the pudding'.

Test cricket appeals to the masses across Australia because it's the dream, born of summer, and solidified through enthralling contests in the backyard with cheap polyarmour cricket bats compliments of Santa Claus and half-taped tennis balls, which early adopters of Neighbourhood Watch were valiantly able to locate after significant rescue missions.

I am known to offer, repeatedly, that I love to watch or listen to every single ball of a Test match.

Some think my obsession is strange, but I hope I can continue to commit to the Australian dream for the rest of my life.

And while I may not captain Australia, I will still be able to offer advice and opinion to anyone who will listen.

For my family, cricket was a way for our parents to make a link to an Australian pastime and share it with their children.

Our first bats were fashioned from marine ply with an axe roughly cutting at the packing materials.

The flat handle was not particularly comfortable to hold, and the bat was not particularly effective, but that is cricket in Australia.

By contrast, the English game has traditionally been for private school children with access dependent on wealth not talent.

To put that in perspective, Mowbray lad Ricky Ponting may have found it difficult to break through because of the address of his family's home.

The late Shane Warne may have been in a similar situation.

And although we maintain the faith that talent will prosper and not be dependent upon where you come from or where you were born, Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket found that inequity in the community can be entrenched by schools and also cricket clubs.

Yet, as they say, 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw cricket balls'.

We are very good at being racist ourselves and there are numerous events across sport and society that have highlighted inappropriate behaviour.

And while we may commit to reconciliation through a variety of worthwhile acknowledgements such as Indigenous rounds, it doesn't take away from the fact that the broader community holds either a pronounced bias at worst, or an unconscious bias at best, regarding the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our community.

The ECB demonstrated leadership this week but, sadly, the entrenched issues the game faces in the Mother Country will take generations to resolve.