The mainstreaming of disability cricket in England and Wales: Integration ‘One Game’ at a time

Highlights

•	Examines the nexus between policy and its interpretation and implementation by sport managers.
•	Outlines how a high profile British NGB has managed the process of integration.
•	Reveals a case highlighting the difficulties of aiming for true integration in organized sport.

Abstract

Disability sport in Great Britain has, since its genesis over sixty years ago, gained greater public profile with each passing decade. Arguably, this is a result of a more direct, interventionist approach from the British government and the Sport Councils into the field of disability sport over the past twenty years. In this paper we highlight a case of integration within sport by examining the process of mainstreaming disability cricket within England and Wales. Following a review of the extant literature in this area we will draw upon Bourdieu's practice theory in order to examine the impact of the implementation of policy on the management of issues of disability in mainstream cricket. Longitudinal ethnographic data (including participant observation and semi-structured interviews) was collected on the organizations involved in this mainstreaming process. Informants were either involved in the delivery of disability cricket or in the management of disability sports partnerships. Preliminary findings suggest that true integration is still unrealized. Whether the policy seeks true integration or whether mainstreaming is simply another modernizing process seeking greater efficiencies from sport organizations is unclear. Nevertheless a number of institutional pressures from the proximal and distal external environments have provided support for generating mainstreaming initiatives at management levels. In addition to these findings we argue that an additional outcome of this research is to demonstrate the suitability of a relational approach for conceptualizing policy, its interpretation by sport managers and the implementation strategies that follow.

Keywords:

• Integration
• Mainstreaming
• Cricket
• Bourdieu
• Disability sport

Notes

2 First-class is a term used to indicate that the cricket played by the CCB representative teams is of the highest standard up to and excluding international representative competition.

3 As the focus of this paper is on integration in cricket in England and Wales it is unworkable to protect the anonymity of the governing body.

4 For a more comprehensive review of Bourdieu's master concepts and their relationship to sport management please refer to Kitchin and Howe (2013).

5 A pseudonym.

6 Although disability cricket is designed to offer men and women, boys and girls with disabilities the chance to play cricket, the county game and international representative sides are dominated by male players.

7 The various forms of disability cricket each have their own classification system, for instance players participating in blind cricket must adhere to the ophthalmological rules of the International Blind Sport Association which establish categories of B1, B2 and B3. A player who is categorized B1 if they experience an impairment from no perception of light in either eye, up to perception of light but an inability to recognize the shape of a hand at any distance in any direction. A player who is categorized B2 if they experience an impairment from the ability to recognize the shape of a hand up to a visual acuity of 2/60 and/or a field of 5 degrees or less. A player who is categorized B3 if they experience an impairment from a visual acuity above 2/60 up to 6/60 and/or a visual field of more than 5 degrees and less than 20 degrees. British Blind Sport also includes a B4 classification for national purposes. Athletes included in this category experience visual impairment from 6/60 to 6/24 that does not take into account field considerations (adapted from British Blind Sport, 2012). The laws of blind cricket are detailed but effectively ensure that each team has a certain number of athletes who are categorized as B1.