Ebony Rainford-Brent took Twitter off her phone in the lead-up to the Sky Sports feature about Black Lives Matter on Wednesday, in which she and Michael Holding bared their souls on racism, for fear of being bombarded with abuse.
A couple of days on and England’s first female black cricketer, now the director of women’s cricket at Surrey, has been overwhelmed by a “powerful” response and senses change in the sport will accelerate. Not all of this will come quickly, she adds, but there are quick wins to be had.
“I didn’t sleep the night before the video went out,” Rainford-Brent said on day three of the first Test against West Indies. “I was expecting abuse or people saying ‘not this again’. It was emotionally draining and then there was anxiety before it went out, so I got rid of Twitter.
“Bryan Henderson [head of Sky Cricket] and Nasser Hussain told me afterwards I should check my Twitter again and when I did the messages were ridiculous. And I’ve spent hours going through the texts, emails and answering calls.
I’ve had messages from around the world, from every nation, the England girls, administrators, ex-players like [the former Australia captain] Michael Clarke. That tells you that cricket is switched on to the message.
“I thought we were talking in our own cricket bubble but I’ve had people from all walks of life saying how what we said has crossed over or opened their eyes. Other people said we had given them a voice. That’s been really powerful.”
Rainford-Brent believes the feature was part of a perfect storm at the start of the Test, with the rain delay allowing Holding to further expand on the theme of racism with a potent history lesson about the “dehumanisation of the black race”.
She believes her emotional testimony, speaking about being “drip-fed” derogatory comments growing up in London, allied perfectly with the “clear, concise” truths of Holding before England and West Indies took a knee. The tourists, notably, also wore black gloves.
“That was a goosebumps moment,” she says. “To see it on one of the most important days of our sport and everyone taking a knee was powerful. I watched the grand prix and it was a case of half up, half down. That didn’t look like full solidarity. But here we saw all players, umpires and coaching staff doing it.
The gloves gave it another lift, linking it .back to the 1968 Olympics. It just shows how long this journey has been going. It’s not just a ‘now’ moment but a fight that’s been going on for some time.”
Rainford-Brent will meet Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, next week to discuss how the sport turns this into action. As she said in the Sky film, representation of the black community in positions of influence in cricket is effectively zero and players are scarce.
Harrison has pledged two bursaries for members of the black community per ECB coaching course. It’s the kind of quick win that Rainford-Brent wants to see more of, not least since she and Surrey created the Ace programme – trials for Afro-Caribbean cricketers at the Oval – in no time.
She said: “Some of the structural stuff will take years but there are ways to have a quick impact. You can develop a programme in a short space of time, you can get key advisers on this subject into cricket overnight.
“[The Surrey chief executive] Richard Gould told me we had to work on long-term projects in this area but he also wanted some fast results. From giving me a budget to announcing the Ace programme took two and a half weeks.”Rainford-Brent has long impressed on this subject but believes she could not have shared her full story without the strength of Holding. The pair have been trying to focus on the Test since but have taken a moment to discuss a whirlwind week.
“Because it’s been emotional, we’ve just tried to breathe and think. On my own I don’t think I could have done it but the way Mikey spoke, it created a united front. One of his videos was up to five million views yesterday.
“I’ve had so many emails via my website. I saw people saying ‘I’m in my 70s and have never considered it but I’ve found myself questioning things and will commit to change’. It’s put a marker down and I’m more positive than I have ever been.”