The delivery was back of a length, drawing a little extra bounce and seaming across the left-hander. It was the second ball he’d faced, and his side were under the cosh. He gave it a tentative prod, then thanked his lucky stars he’d missed it and got on with trying to salvage something for his side.

“Bit casual, this batter, isn’t he?” said one spectator.

“Well, it’s in his genes,” said his friend.

The batter was Keith Barker. 

Keith Barker, with a 14-year career in the professional game. Keith Barker, with six first-class centuries and 25 fifties to go with his 508 wickets at less than 25 each. Keith Barker, well-regarded in these parts for his title-winning spell at Firwood Bootle and in every sense the model of an excellent county all-rounder. A bit casual. In his genes.

Keith Barker, famously highlighted in 2020 as the only state-schooled Black British professional cricketer in the whole country. Casual. Genes.

I thought of this little exchange a lot while reading the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s exhaustive report into the state of the game. Because while it is unequivocally racist to say a Black person is casual because of their genes, it’s not the sort of racism that usually makes headlines.

Compared with the physical and mental trauma suffered by Azeem Rafiq and others, it seems small fry. Compared with screenshotting callous social media posts from players’ misspent youth (including Rafiq’s, and England seamer Ollie Robinson’s, to name just two), it’s hard work. And compared with the performative abuse and invective which some sportspeople have to endure, it seems inconsequential.

But The Case Of The Casual Gene is probably more reflective of the character of much of the racism, sexism and elitism described in the ICEC’s report.

It’s not all about direct discrimination; if it were, it would be easier to stop. It’s the microaggressions, the assumptions, the stereotypes that fly under the radar and make things harder for anyone who isn’t a middle class white man like me, one tiny step at a time.

Real progress has been made over the past few decades. The Comp and many of its clubs are rightly proud of the recent explosion in women’s and girls’ cricket, and pretty much everyone recognises discrimination is wrong, even those who still practise it. 

But some people can be tricked into believing the problem has been solved. As such, some of the responses to the ICEC report were grimly predictable.

But the report is not about listing problems, it’s about finding solutions. It’s not about individual outrages, it’s about institutional best practice. It’s not about the past, it’s about the future. 

And if it makes people like Casual Genes Guy think twice before opening their mouths, then it’ll have done some good.