ECB abandons Rooney Rule for coach recruitment

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has abandoned use of the Rooney Rule in hiring coaches for national teams, saying its recruitment has “evolved”.

In 2018, the ECB committed to interviewing at least one applicant from an ethnic minority background for all coaching roles in the national men’s, women’s and disabled teams.

The commitment came five years before a report from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) concluded discrimination was “widespread” in the sport in England and Wales.

Since then, the ECB has repeatedly stated its aim for cricket to become “the most inclusive sport in the country”.

Asked by BBC Sport about the hiring process for 16 roles connected to the England men’s and women’s teams since 2024, the ECB confirmed that not all appointments were made with the application of the Rooney Rule – and it is no longer routinely used in coaching recruitment.

The Rooney Rule was implemented in American football’s NFL in 2003.

Named after NFL diversity committee chairman Dan Rooney, it requires clubs in American football to interview at least one ethnic minority candidate for each head coach or senior football operation vacancy.

An ECB spokesperson said: “We regularly review our recruitment practices, and our approach has evolved over the last eight years.

“Coach recruitment processes are tailored to the requirements of each role. Some appointments involve open recruitment processes, while others involve targeted searches for specialist skillsets, experience and leadership qualities. At times we recruit an individual, and at others we recruit a team.”

Of the recruitments BBC Sport highlighted to the ECB, not all were coaches – some were roles of selector or director of cricket.

They included appointments made in the past week. On Monday, Richard Dawson, James Foster and Eric Simons joined the coaching staff of the men’s Test team, and Michael Yardy was named as elite national batting lead.

The ECB confirmed at least one ethnic minority candidate was part of the process when Stephen Fleming became Test head coach in July.

In April 2025, then director of women’s cricket Clare Connor did not use an open recruitment process or the Rooney Rule when she named Charlotte Edwards head coach of the England women’s team.

At the time, Connor told BBC Sport: “I think the Rooney Rule should be absolutely applied in all circumstances where it is deemed feasible. I don’t think it’s on the whim of the person recruiting or hiring.

“It is practise within the ECB across our pathway appointments and our senior appointments in England cricket that we apply the Rooney Rule.”

In its statement issued to BBC Sport, the ECB continued: “In elite sport, the pool of candidates can be relatively small. As such, we use a range of approaches, including external recruitment specialists and the expertise of our internal teams, to identify the strongest possible candidates and ensure we consider coaches from a range of backgrounds.

“We remain committed to improving diversity and representation within cricket. We recognise there are differing views on the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule, and instead of applying that in every case, our experience has shown that strengthening the coaching and leadership pipeline, and increasing the number of ethnically diverse and female coaches progressing through the system, is the most effective way of securing long-term change.

“We believe that our continued commitment to the coaching pathway and development will have the greatest long-term impact on representation.”

The ECB announced its intention to implement the Rooney Rule in May 2018. Almost three years later, in March 2021, the ICEC was announced in the wake of global movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too.

In 2023, the ICEC’s report, called Holding Up a Mirror to Cricket, concluded racism, sexism, classism and elitism were rife in the game.

As part of its work to improve inclusion in cricket, the ECB has focussed on growing the number of female and ethnically diverse coaches at all levels. In 2025, the governing body funded more than 1,000 coaching bursaries, of which 22% were awarded to coaches from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

The ECB’s coaching pathway has five steps – advanced and specialist are the two highest levels a coach can achieve.

Since 2021, 21% of the coaches taking the advanced level course and 19% of the coaches on the specialist course have been from ethnically diverse backgrounds.