It was opened during the 2019 World Cup in the heart of east London at the old Leyton County Ground, where Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes once put on a world record first-class partnership of 555 for Yorkshire against Essex.
Now the Leyton Hub is providing an antidote to the racism storms that have engulfed cricket.
Nasser Hussain, raised in south Essex, went back to his old stamping ground to talk to his friend and former Essex second XI player Arfan Akram, now east London cricket operations manager for Essex cricket, to see whether the Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities really are engaging with the game. It is what Essex, faced with historic claims of racism themselves, did next.
Sportsmail's Nasser Hussain (L) with his friend and former Essex second XI player Arfan Akram
Nasser Hussain: When we were growing up we learnt cricket at my dad’s shed, the Ilford Cricket School. This place looks a bit better! How and why did it come about and how important is it to the local communities?
Arfan Akram: The ECB set up a South Asian strategy and on the back of that came the South Asian Action Plan. One of the aims was to build an urban hub and we were fortunate in that the work of Essex in east London had already started, in 2013. The passion for cricket was obvious here, so we became the ECB pilot scheme. There are others being set up by ECB around the country now.
Hussain: Was it a failing of Essex cricket before all this? Was the nurturing of the Asian communities the missing piece in the jigsaw?
Akram: For the amount of cricket being played in this area, it was not producing enough players for Essex. When I was a young lad I didn’t quite understand what the pathway was but now there are clear opportunities on the simple principle that we don’t want anyone to be missed.
Arfan Akram is now the east London cricket operations manager for Essex cricket
Hussain: When I was growing up there was a feeling you had to be 50 per cent better as a British Asian or from the Afro-Caribbean community to make it ahead of your average white privately educated schoolboy. Is that right and has it changed?
Akram: The evidence would suggest that was right in the 1980s, 90s and into the 2000s. The key for us was whether those communities were neglected or whether we were doing this because it’s the right thing to do. If we want to put our wrongs right we don’t want to do it simply as a box-ticking exercise. We want to do it to change the game.
Hussain: So, what were your thoughts when you saw Azeem Rafiq open up to MPs over what he has been through?
Akram: It was so hard to watch, especially when he said he wouldn’t encourage his child to play the game. I compare his statement to when Michael Holding stood with you at the Ageas Bowl. Cricket is now doing what society is doing. Pausing, reflecting and thinking about what needs to be done. We were already on a journey but that showed there’s a long way to go.
Arfan Akram insists there’s been a huge culture change amid historic allegations of racism
Hussain: What started as a Yorkshire problem quickly became a country-wide problem. And an Essex one. Three former players in Maurice Chambers, Jahid Ahmed and Zoheb Sharif made allegations of racism from their time at the club. Essex faced charges of bringing the game into disrepute by the ECB and we await the Newton Report into the affair. What did you make of all that?
Akram: I know all the lads involved so it hurts. Investigations are ongoing so I don’t want to influence that. What I would say is that the allegations were historic. There’s been a huge culture change. I think a lot has
