England's World Cup-winning Women's Cricket Team Accused of Not Being "Diverse Enough"

The successful England women's cricket team which had a very nervy and exciting win over the Indian women in the final of the ICC Women's World Cup, is being accused of not being "diverse enough." One writer, Jamaican-born Oliver George, writing for the online edition of The London Times in an opinion piece had this to say:

"First of all I must say congratulations to the World Cup-winning England women's cricket team. I watched the final of the ICC Women's World Cup with great excitement and enthusiasm and I must say that it was one of the most entertaining finals that I have ever witnessed for a women's game. There was no shortage of drama and excitement. But what I find somewhat disturbing was that the England team was too racially-homogeneous."

George went on:

"Why should this be? Is the ECB saying that in all of England there are absolutely no players of Afro-Caribbean or Indian or Pakistani heritage that are good enough to make the England team? Can young up and coming English girls of non-Anglo Saxon backgrounds identify with this team? Can they feel the same joy and excitement that a young white aspiring female English cricketer is feeling? And while Anya Shrubsole must be given credit for her match-winning figures of 6 for 46 from her 9.4 overs bowled, I am quite certain that there are probably many more English cricketers of other ethnic backgrounds who can match or even better those figures."

He continued:

"Also, did anyone notice that apart from the Indian supporters, most of the spectators in the stands were white? Is England becoming less accepting now of other people the more racially diverse it gets? England should feel ashamed of the way it has treated its non-white population who, incidentally may very well be the majority of the English population in a decade or less."

Many people on commenting George's article were quick to call him out on his apparent bigotry.

One commentator going by the name Anglo Warrior had this response to George:

"So you seem to have a problem with the racial composition of our women's cricket team eh Mr. George? Apparently all that matters to you is not the fact that the team comprises of a talented bunch of World Champion cricketers but that they must be of the "right" racial composition. And you have the audacity to accuse England of being "less accepting the more racially diverse it gets"? It's obvious that you suffer from convenient blindness because had you watched the finals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup last month which England won, you would know that your stupid, ignorant and bigoted assumptions have already been debunked."