Cricket’s healing role after the Brixton Riots

Dickie Brown

Brixton West Indies Cricket Club at the Oval in 1982

On a warm summer’s day in July 1982, the Brixton West Indies Cricket Club and the Metropolitan Police came together in an attempt to bridge their differences by playing a game of cricket at the Oval.

It was a year after the Brixton riots, the disorder sparked by antagonism between black youths and the police.

A public inquiry, held by Lord Scarman, found although there was “no doubt” racial disadvantage was a fact of current British life, institutional racism did not exist in the Met.

Members of the black community disagreed. A gesture was needed to rebuild bridges.

The idea of a peace-making cricket match was suggested by Rudy Narayan, a barrister and civil rights activist of Guyanese descent, who specialised in defending young black men.

The relationship between cricket and Britain’s Caribbean communities has deep roots.

The Windrush generation, arriving in the UK from the late 1940s, brought not only labour but a love for the game.

Cricket clubs sprang up as communal lifelines, offering recreation and a sense of belonging.

The international dominance of West Indies cricket through players like Viv Richards and Michael Holding only fuelled the passion among second-generation British-Caribbean youth.

Cricket became more than sport – it was a cultural anchor.

Dickie Brown

The matches against the police were meant to be a symbol of unity

The unrest of April 1981 was symptomatic of widespread frustration over police discrimination – particularly the use of stop and search under Operation Swamp.

It was an attempt to cut street crime in Brixton – and police used the controversial “sus law” (from “suspected person”) to stop and search more than 1,000 people in six days.

The people stopped were supposedly chosen at random, but many young black men felt they were being unjustly singled out by officers, causing widespread resentment.

In combination with economic hardship and social exclusion, it led to three days of violence.

Rioters fought police, attacked buildings and set fire to vehicles.

More than 300 people were injured and the damage caused was put at £7.5m.

Dickie Brown

Tony Moody (right) thought there was merit in the idea of a unifying game of cricket

Friendly matches between the Brixton West Indies club and the police had previously been played but had undergone something of a hiatus.

They were revived in 1982 under the banner of the Leslie Walker Trophy, named after a police superintendent engaged in local outreach.

The symbolic match was even attended by Lord Scarman himself, who said: “A game of cricket does everyone good… it’s fun, and that’s what human relations should be.”

The 20-over game was won by the Brixton West Indies team.

Player Patrick Russell described the atmosphere at the Oval as “like a community festival, where the police wanted to show that they were friendly”.

Beyond the field of play, the spectators cooked traditional Caribbean food and played music.

Another team member, Tony Moody, said he thought the suggestion had some merit.

“It was a good thing to see the police and the community players actually playing a match with the intention of establishing better relations.”

Now a community cricket coach, he added: “They didn’t think that it was going to achieve anything because of the way the politics were.

“But at the same time, quite a few people like myself thought something sensible could come out of it.”

Dickie Brown

Cricket has deep roots in communities descended from the Windrush Generation

Michael Collins, professor of modern and contemporary British history at University College London, said the game “reflected the tradition of people like Learie Constantine [pioneering cricketer, diplomat, civil rights advocate and Britain’s first black peer] who were firmly of the view that cricket is something that brings people together”.

In his book Windrush Cricket, Dr Collins noted how black cricket clubs were more than houses for hobbies; they were “safe spaces” providing everything from job referrals to housing leads – an absolute epicentre of community lives.

These clubs fostered trust and offered an alternative civic infrastructure where migrants could thrive and support one another.

Dr Collins said the idea was based on the premise that once people got to know one another, cohesion would follow.

“It’s about education, contact and learning.

“The idea that young black guys in Brixton will play cricket matches against the police was entirely within the paradigm of ‘once they get to understand each other better, then everything will kind of pan out’.”

The match split attitudes.

Brixton West Indies batter – and future founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival – Lloyd Coxsone said: “I don’t think this cricket match built any bridges between Brixton and the police.

“Quite a few people in the community said we shouldn’t play the match against the police – but it’s cricket.

“We wanted to prove something.”

Others in the community accused the police of performative allyship.

Dr Collins said some people didn’t want to take part “because they felt like it was sportswashing.

“There was the belief it was tokenism and it didn’t help at all or get to the heart of the problem.”

However, for many, it wasn’t about the immediate impact but the intent – the willingness to meet, to play, and to engage.

Rudy Narayan had hope – although he said the “true indication” of improved race relations would be seen through the conduct of the police in Brixton.

“Certainly this indication from both [cricketing] sides is that they’re willing to meet to talk and to play again, this means they’re willing to live together in one multiracial society.

“The real value is what goes on in the streets – the marketplaces and at the grassroots level in Brixton, and at Brixton police station.”

Mr Coxsone, though, is less optimistic. Forty years on from the match, he has the opinion that “it will take more than a cricket match to build back bridges”.

But the 1982 game was at least an attempt to use sport to confront racial tensions, to – if only for an hour or so – share common ground.