Former England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent shares horrific letter she received
Former England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent was told to "leave our country" in a vitriolic, hand-written racist letter.
The 37-year-old, who became the first Black woman to play for England's cricket team in 2001, shared a picture of the letter on Twitter this week, at a time when the sport's issues with racism have been laid bare.
Rainford-Brent captioned her tweet: "Interesting... Born in south London but apparently I was found naked in Africa as a primitive. Had some letters in my time but this one up there!"
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The letter contained a number of racist and sexist slurs and referred multiple times to "White culture."
It comes after former cricket player Azeem Rafiq gave testimony describing a pattern of racist and discriminatory behavior within English cricket, speaking to UK lawmakers on Tuesday.
CARDIFF, WALES - JUNE 24: Ebony Rainford-Brent works as a pundit on BBC Sport before the 2nd T20I between England and Sri Lanka at Sophia Gardens on June 24, 2021 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Ebony Rainford-Brent Visionhaus/Getty Images
Throughout the hearing, Rafiq shared his experience of being bullied at Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) and broke down in tears on more than one occasion.
In a summary of a report produced by an independent panel for the YCCC, the panel concluded that "there is no question" that Rafiq "was the victim of racial harassment."
Rainford-Brent represented her country 29 times until 2010 before moving into sports broadcasting. In 2020, she partnered with cricket legend Michael Holding to produce a powerful short film to address the issue of racism in both cricket and society following the police murder of George Floyd.
"I grew up in a very multicultural, diverse London with all sorts of colours -- Black, White, Asian," she said in the Sky Sports video.
"Everyone was a melting pot, and I noticed that as soon as I walked into the world of cricket, the comments started.
"I had comments about where I grew up, and the fact that I had a long name, maybe my mum didn't know who my dad was; about my hair, body parts, especially the derriere shall we say; about the food that I ate and that it stank.
"I question myself why I stayed so long. I love the game, it has so much more to offer, but it can be really difficult dealing with that day in and day out."
