The former chairman of Cricket Scotland has expressed 'serious concerns' about the highly critical McKinney report

Former Cricket Scotland chair Tony Brian has expressed 'serious concerns' regarding a critical review that has questioned the organization's culture and treatment of women.

Responding to the McKinney Report, an independent assessment by a leading Scottish HR firm published on Monday, which found a "high level of prejudice against female staff and players" within Cricket Scotland and that "antiquated attitudes and behaviours towards women in the game remain prevalent, particularly at club level", Brian - who led Cricket Scotland from 2015 to 2022 - said sexism and inequality had no place in society or cricket and that "proven cases must be addressed".

He warned readers to approach the conclusions with a high degree of scepticism, as some lacked the necessary investigative work and evidence.

Tony Brian noted that the review's conclusions were based primarily on feedback from questionnaires completed by 21 current staff members, representing just over half of the 41 current staff members. In addition, three former staff members were allowed to be nominated by an interested third party, a surprising decision by McKinney. It is unclear to him why other former staff members were excluded from the review, and their voices have not been heard.

Brian added that McKinney used a methodology known as 'neutral assessment'. This is an informal fact-finding process typically used to explore areas of concern or current cultures. It is not meant to investigate.

"Having acknowledged that investigative work was not undertaken, the review then ignores that obvious limitation and goes on to draw conclusions on various issues based on the perceptions and feelings of the survey respondents. No attempt has been made to gather readily available evidence from others who were close to the individual issues."

The 35-page report comes just two years after another independent review, 'Changing The Boundaries', conducted by Plan4Sport, found Cricket Scotland to be institutionally racist. This document resulted in the resignation of the entire Cricket Scotland board on the eve of its publication.

The McKinney report analysed behaviours, cultures, and practices within Cricket Scotland before and after the publication of the Changing the Boundaries report in 2022. It identified six key issues covering culture and inclusion, leadership, employment practices and welfare, psychological safety, and sexism and misogyny. The report includes nine recommendations, with priorities centred around general behaviours, sexism, and misogyny.

Brian, a vocal critic of the Changing The Boundaries Report, disagreed with the McKinney review's claim that Cricket Scotland had not given enough attention and resources to women's and girls' cricket until 2022, which amounted to inequality.

Following the publication of the McKinney report, Cricket Scotland CEO Trudy Lindblade described it as "a damning indictment of the treatment of female players and staff within our organisation" and apologised to anyone who had been affected and let down by the governing body.