An 11-point action plan was drawn up covering facilities, formats, children and schools, women and girls, talent identification, development and retention, financial support, elite coaching, matchday experience, communication and the cricket workforce.
Here’s more on some of those areas:
Talent identification and retention
The research that was done to inform the South Asian Action Plan found 50% of respondents felt more ‘scouts’ were needed to watch non-traditional cricket environments, such as park leagues.
The ECB said it has started piloting a “Community Talent Champions” programme in collaboration with the National Asian Cricket Council.
Three counties – Yorkshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire – have taken part in the pilot.
The ECB told BBC Sport: “Five Community Talent Champions have been recruited across the three counties to test new ways to spot England stars of the future – by identifying and developing players of potential from diverse and non-traditional cricketing pathways and who may not have the opportunity to be seen in the traditional clubs and league structures. Our plans are to expand to other cities and regions based on the learnings from the pilots.”
In addition, it said the County Partnership Agreement requires all first-class counties to establish a scouting system to support identification of players into the pathway. A new talent development framework has also recently been launched for the boys’ and girls’ game and the T20 City Cup has been refocused to act as an identification tool for young people from urban areas.
Facilities
Research found the single biggest barrier to South Asian participation is access to facilities in urban areas.
The ECB set a short-term ambition for 2018 and 2019 of creating between one and three Urban Cricket Centres, installing 100 non-turf pitches in urban areas and installing or upgrading 25 turf pitches in urban areas.
While the first two of these have been achieved, BBC Sport has learnt the ambition regarding turf pitches has not been met, with just 15 upgraded.
In Yorkshire, planning permission has been granted for an urban hub to be built in Bradford at Parkside Sports Centre in West Bowling, which is due to open during summer 2022.
One has already opened in Leyton, East London, and another is planned for the Abraham Moss Sports Centre in Manchester.
By 2024, the ambition is to create 20 Urban Cricket Centres, install 1,000 non-turf pitches and install or upgrade 100 turf pitches by 2024.
Coaching
In 2018, less than 5% of the coaching staff at first-class counties were South Asian, with the ECB unable to provide the latest data for that.
The ECB said a lot of work was being undertaken to support more coaches from South Asian and other ethnically diverse backgrounds to achieve their Advanced and Specialist level qualifications through bursaries and mentoring programmes.
It added “28% of our latest Specialist (level 4) course and 21% of our Advanced (level 3) intakes were from an ethnically diverse background”, in addition to mentoring and education programmes.
Anti-discrimination work
Unconscious bias training was delivered to all county academy staff in 2018 and 2019.
In collaboration with the PCA, an anti-racism education programme was delivered to professional cricketers, academy players, coaches and support staff during 2021.
The ECB said a “further tranche of training is being developed with the PCA to test application of learning”.
Cricket workforce
In 2018, less than 10% of the cricket workforce was of South Asian origin and one first-class county chief executive of South Asian origin.
The Rooney Rule was introduced for ECB coaching appointments, and bursaries and scholarships have been introduced to support coach development.
The ECB’s own workforce is 7% South Asian, up from 3% in 2017-18.
The governing body said it is undertaking “a game-wide census to understand the demographics of the cricket workforce”, and will have updated information at the start of 2022.
A new County Governance Code is also being implemented to “ensure an appropriate representation of under-represented communities in decision-making positions across the First-Class & Recreational game”.