John Stephenson: I think about Essex racism episode quite a bit

[dazedpenguin]

John Stephenson: I think about Essex racism episode quite a bit

from: https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/premiumfeatures/john_stephenson_think_essex_racism_episode.html (paywalled)

Here are a few of the more interesting excerpts:

During the 1990/91 Ashes in Australia, he was called up from Grade Cricket (he was playing for the Gold Coast Dolphins) and told he was playing in Brisbane. What happened next is a reminder of how unprofessional things used to be.

"I nearly played my second test in Brisbane in 1990," he says from his office overlooking the WACA in Perth. "Didn't quite make it."

Ahead of that first Test, England suffered something of an injury crisis with Allan Lamb, Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart all struggling with one niggle or another. England realised they required reinforcements and sent for Stephenson.

Somehow, in those pre-mobile phone days, someone thought to phone the local off-license - the bottle-o as they're called in these parts - where they found him.

"I've no idea how they tracked me down," he says now. "I was literally in the fridge picking out a 24-pack of beer to put in the car when someone said 'Mickey Stewart's on the phone'. He told me I had to get to Brisbane as fast as I could as I was playing in the first Test."

"Anyway, I drove to Brisbane as fast as I could. I had a battered old MG which didn't have a roof, and I remember praying it didn't rain. I arrived for the last bit of training two days before the Test, had a net and prepared to play. But they didn't have a room for me in the hotel, so I ended up sleeping on the sofa of the tour manager, Peter Lush.

"The morning of the game came, and we were driven to the ground in a van. I remember it clearly. I was between David Gower and Phil Tufnell, and I'd been told I was playing.

"But then they delayed the toss by a few minutes to allow the guys an extra fitness Test, and Lamby came through it. Suddenly, I had a tap on the shoulder. I wasn't needed. They literally told me 20 minutes before the game started. It was brutal. Really upsetting."

To rub salt in the wound, he was then left out of the England A side, which was touring Pakistan.

"They told me I was going to be captain on that tour," he says now. "And then I wasn't even picked.  I'd had all my jabs. My bags were packed. They told me I was going to fly from Brisbane on New Year's Eve.

"But then they sent Hugh Morris instead. They had told me he was joining the Test squad to replace Gooch, who had a broken hand. But then Gooch recovered, Morris went to Pakistan, and I was left to deal with another disappointment. I really did feel messed about. It was horrendous."

...
But it is his three years at Essex that he regards as "the most challenging" period of his career. Almost as soon as he started in the role, he was confronted by allegations of racism, which led to 16 individuals - coaches, players, administrators - being sanctioned for racist behaviour. Stephenson was in a desperately tough position but, unlike elsewhere, made no attempt to cover up the issue or silence the complainants. Most of the victims found that he acted with impressive integrity.

"Yes, that was the most challenging episode of my career," Stephenson says. "I think about it quite a bit. I love Essex. I always will. I just want to see it progress and do well.

"Inevitably, there are going to be people who might harbour some bad feelings towards some of the decisions I made. I get that. It affects people's lives. As I say, it was incredibly difficult.

"But I'm proud of how I handled it. At every step of the way, I felt that I was doing the right thing. Not everyone agreed with me, and that's fine, but I felt that I left Essex in a better place than I found it. I don't think I'd do anything differently."

Part of that experience saw the club's chair, John Faragher, forced to stand down. Faragher maintains he wasn't given a fair hearing or chance to clear his name. Specifically, he alleges the ECB threatened Essex to sack him or lose their staging rights to England Women's games. Stephenson doesn't deny this.

[vim]

From the last sentence, about the ECB applying pressure. To hang John Faragher out to dry. It can be seen why John Stephenson, was so keen to take up a position in Australia. The circumstances around his one test cap, are similar to that of Tony Pigot. Who happened to be in New Zealand at the time, and no one else was available at such short notice. England played, so badly that Tony Pigot was able to return to the UK as he planned, due to the Test ending earlier.

[Andy]

Spineless people. Both those who were actually racist the ECB for forcing someone out for an alleged comment. 

[squarelegumpire]

Stephenson's stories of being selected and then deselected are dreadful. Talk about lack of sympathy. You've got to feel for the selectors, too; miust be very difficult to have called someone up up bas an urgent, panic stations, replacement and then realise you don't need them.
I had an experience, early in my working life, when I was asked to take over somewhere, found the paperwork in a mess, and sorted it all out. When a permanent chap was appointed and the boss found out I'd sorted out the paperwork he told me I needn't have bothered. Still rankles, sixty years later.

Racism's always difficult to deal with, especially as attitudes have changed dramatically (for the better) over the last thirty or forty years. "Acceptable" banter then isn't now. Look at the Black and White Minstrel show, or Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part (etc).