Mike Atherton lashes out at the lack of black players in County Cricket

Former England skipper, Mike Atherton has lashed out at the scarcity of black players in county cricket, stating that "it's clearly not good enough".

"When I started playing in the early 90s the ratio was about one in 12 or one in 15. Now you can count them on the fingers of two hands, maybe six or seven," Mike Atherton said.

Mike Atherton believes the lack of focus on black players has led to lost talent

This is, in fact, true as a recent study by Leeds Beckett University has shown that there were only 9 black players who featured in the country season last year as opposed to the 33 black players who competed back in 1995.

Evidently, there has been a massive shift of emphasis and Mike Atherton believes there could be several reasons behind it.

"It's a complex issue to explain and there are all kinds of reasons impacting upon it. The bottom line is that's it's not good enough when you think of the amount of talent that's lost," Mike Atherton stressed.

Since the turn of the century, only three black players have donned played internationally for England with Jofra Archer being the most recent one. The 52-year old feels the ECB has prioritized the South Asian groups and, as a result, shifted some focus away from the black community.

"I think the ECB have focused on the south Asian project and maybe taken their eye off the Black community. As a game you want to spread the net as far and wide as you can and select from the maximum talent pool. You don't want it to be a closed game, for the public schools, you want it to be a game for all communities, right across the spectrum," Mike Atherton added.

In a recent statement, ECB has indeed acknowledged they have made the black community feel disenfranchised and vowed to ensure greater engagement and autonomy for black players and officials within its cricketing circuits.