Essex Cricket Club promised to increase diversity awareness after beer poured on Muslim player

Essex County Cricket Club, one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales, has vowed to increase awareness of cultural differences after that an incident happened when a Muslim player was sprayed with alcohol on the balcony at Lord's Cricket Ground (commonly known as Lord's) as they celebrated the win of the Bob Willis Trophy -a tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season.

Specifically, Essex became the champions of the inaugural Bob Willis Trophy by virtue of their first innings lead of 36 runs after the game ended in a draw. Yet, during the celebrations, some videos and photos showed Feroze Khushi, player of the English cricket club who was the 12th man for Sunday’s game against Somerset, grimacing as beer was poured over his head by one of his teammates.

Essex were crowned champions of the inaugural Bob Willis Trophy by virtue of their first-innings lead of 36 runs after the game ended in a draw. Image credit: Twitter/The Indian Express

“Essex County Cricket Club prides themselves on their work within multi-diverse communities throughout the county and the surrounding areas,” the club declared in a statement to calm the waters.

“For a substantial period of time, Essex have had a multi-diverse team with players from different backgrounds, religions, and races, where cricket is at the heart of these communities.

“The club has worked extremely hard and will continue to bring cricket to anybody and everybody, and educate on diversity, but further work needs to be done ... to widen people’s knowledge and make them more aware of cultural differences.”

For now, let’s hope that a lesson has been learned and that episodes of this kind will never happen again.