END RACISM DAY – SUNDAY 21 MARCH 2021

End Racism Day takes place on Sunday 21 March.

It is officially known as ‘The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’ and is a perfect opportunity for the cricket community to celebrate human unity and the diversity of the human race.

It is also a chance to recognize prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination in our society, and how each of us may have our own prejudices and may be making people feel excluded without our even realizing it. It's a chance to reaffirm our commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination and help create communities and societies where all citizens can live in dignity, equality and peace.

Cricket Leinster is fully committed to implementing a policy of Inclusion at all levels within our game at provincial level and is asking clubs to mark this day by recording its support for an end to racism via its social media accounts – a simple twitter message on Sunday 21st would be a great start.

We have a massive collective opportunity to show leadership in this area as we are probably the most ethnically diverse sport (and province) in the country.

From our perspective, we believe that it is important to demonstrate our intention by taking practical actions – as a consequence, in addition to our ongoing education programme around inclusion, we will be reviewing our Disciplinary Code of Conduct to ensure that any forms of racism are appropriately addressed.

Using language or gestures that offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour, descent and national or ethnic origin is currently considered a Level 3 offence and can attract a penalty ranging from a minimum of a 4 match suspension to a maximum of 9 matches. Our intention is that this will now be treated as a Level 4 offence resulting in a minimum suspension of 10 matches and a maximum sanction of a lifetime ban.

We believe such a change will demonstrate our zero tolerance policy on racism and our commitment to end racism (where it might occur) in club cricket.