ECB accused of allowing non-disabled players to take place of disabled cricketers in top domestic league
The England and Wales Cricket Board has been accused of allowing non‑disabled players to participate in its Disability Premier League, blocking the pathway to international cricket.The parents of Jai Charan and Alex Jervis – both former England players who have diagnosed learning disabilities – say their sons have been replaced in the DPL by players who do not meet the disability criteria under the ECB’s assessment process.The DPL is intended as the top of the pathway to the England Mixed Disability team but another parent, who requested to remain anonymous, estimates that 12 out of 64 players selected in the December draft are non-disabled.The ECB is a signatory to Virtus, the international sports federation for athletes with an intellectual impairment, meaning all players wanting to play internationally under the LD (learning disability) category must show they have an IQ of 75 or lower.Owen Jervis, who is also the volunteer manager of Yorkshire’s disability team, alleges the ECB has allowed several neurodiverse players to participate in the DPL, despite not meeting the criteria in the LD assessment process, carried out by an educational psychologist.
Most players with neurodiversity would not fulfil the ECB’s LD eligibility requirements for disability cricket,A number of neurodiverse cricketers play professional mainstream cricket, including the England bowler Em Arlott, who was diagnosed in 2023 with ADHD and autism,While the ECB is not required to adhere to Virtus regulations in the DPL as it is a domestic competition, including non-disabled players risks undermining the purpose of the tournament,“You can’t call it a Disability Premier League if the players aren’t disabled,” Tracey Jervis said,Another parent of a player with a learning disability says his son has been put at a disadvantage because he plays county disability cricket, instead of mainstream (non‑disabled) cricket.
Many England-qualified players do not play any disability county cricket.“It seems the county game isn’t used at all for assessing potential,” the parent said.“The DPL is meant to be the pinnacle for England-qualified players, but after five years it has the feeling of now being a closed old boys’ club, with coaches and captains picking favourites rather than on form.”Because of the move to mixed disability cricket – meaning that learning disability, physical disability and deaf players now play together in the same teams – there are also fewer opportunities available in each XI.“Players with misallocated impairment and who have no LD are being categorised as LD players and take game space away from those with a qualifying disability,” Owen Jervis said.
“They take the lion’s share of the game in terms of bowling and batting.Many of the LD guys are left with carrying the drinks or being good in the outfield.“The learning disability lads, they don’t know what to say.They know they can’t meet that standard and they never will.So they just kind of go into themselves and say: ‘Well, what’s the point? I’ll do something else.
’”Several other parents felt similarly, but requested their names not be included due to concern about repercussions for their sons.“You get a feeling that the LD people are being quietly put to one side,” one said.Owen Jervis raised the issue via email with Richard Hill, the events and competition manager for disability cricket at the ECB, in September 2024.Hill – in an email seen by the Guardian – said he was “aware of several challenges that are presenting themselves around the emergence of players in our game with high‑functioning conditions” and that the ECB was developing an action plan “to manage the situation”.Owen Jervis says the situation has got worse, however, with more LD‑classified players now excluded from the DPL.
The bowler Jai Charan made his debut for the England LD team in 2023 and has the best bowling average and best strike rate in the history of the DPL, which has been running since 2022.Alex Jervis has represented the England LD team for a decade and won the LD Ashes three times with England.Both were reduced to the role of drinks carrier in the 2025 DPL.Jai Charan’s father, Shanial, , said: “The one place where I genuinely thought my son would not be discriminated against because of his learning disability was disability cricket.Jai didn’t play a single game last season, yet he went to every single game.
And in the end he made his own decision,“He said: ‘Dad, I don’t want to do this any more, because all I do is I come here and I sit and I run on water,But my stats say I’ve got the best bowling average and I’ve got the best strike rate in the history of the DPL,How come they’re not selecting me?’ How do I explain that to him?”An ECB spokesperson said: “The Disability Premier League provides top-level competition for 60 mixed disability players each year, all of whom have an impairment, and is driving forward the standards of disability cricket,With only 60 places available – and squads needing a mix of physical disability, learning disability and deaf players – competition is intense.
We recognise there are debates around the appropriate eligibility criteria, and with the competition now five years old we are reviewing this with a view to any changes coming into place in 2027.”
Don’t blame AI for the Iran school bombing | Letters
Your article on the Iran school bombing rightly challenges the reflex to blame artificial intelligence (AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying, 26 March). However, the deeper problem lies not in the technology but in the language now forming around it. To say that there was an “AI error” quietly removes the human subject from the sentence. Where once civilians were “dehoused” or “collateral damage”, responsibility is now displaced altogether: from people to systems
Patrick McKeown obituary
For the past four years, the James Webb space telescope has been returning stunning images of stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe. Parked in orbit a million miles from the Earth, the observatory is an extraordinarily sophisticated machine that shares a special engineering heritage with a swelling number of modern devices, from mobile phones to medical scanners and turbine blades.All are products of precision engineering, a discipline that blends the traditions of surveying, navigation, astronomy and time-keeping to create the technology that underpins our lives today. And one of its prime exponents was Patrick McKeown.McKeown, who has died aged 95, wrote the “11 principles of machine design” that were a distillation of everything he had learned about accuracy, stability and error correction in mechanical systems, and that have become the bedrock of precision engineering across the world
Apple at 50 quiz: top sellers, turkeys and turtlenecks
In the 50 years since it was founded, Apple has long been seen as one of the most significant technology companies globally. The design and manufacturing decisions taken in Cupertino, California have affected product design across the world, helping usher in an era of ubiquitous touchscreen computing while insisting on exacting user experience design principles. How much do you know about the history of one of the most powerful computing companies on the planet? Test yourself with these 12 questions.The Guardian’s Apple at 50 quiz
MP rejects Palantir’s claims that criticism of NHS England deal is ‘ideologically motivated’
Claims by Palantir that concerns over the US data analytics company’s multimillion-pound NHS contract are “ideologically motivated” have been rejected by the chair of a parliamentary committee.It was also appropriate for the government to seek guidance on activating a break contract in the deal, said Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP who heads the science, innovation and technology select committee.Louis Mosley, the executive vice-chair of Palantir in the UK, had urged the government not to give in to “ideologically motivated campaigners” as ministers explored a way out of a £330m NHS contract with the tech company for England.Ministers have sought advice on triggering a break clause in Palantir’s deal to deliver the Federated Data Platform (FDP) amid questions over the company’s presence in the public sector.The FDP is an AI-enabled data platform designed to connect disparate health information across the NHS
US tech firm Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as it steps up AI spending
Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs as the US technology company seeks to reassure investors that its bet on AI infrastructure will pay off.The $420bn (£315bn) company, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, started making employees redundant on Tuesday, with thousands of its 162,000-strong workforce expected to leave.About 10,000 people have lost their jobs so far, the BBC reported, citing an unnamed employee at the company, which is chaired by Larry Ellison, the billionaire ally of Donald Trump. Ellison is worth $189bn and is the world’s sixth richest person, Forbes estimates.Michael Shepherd, a senior manager at Oracle, who was not affected by the cuts, posted on the social media site LinkedIn that there had been a “significant reduction in force” at the business
I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep
Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench?Lately, I’ve been hearing Judi Dench’s voice in my head. She tells me tomorrow’s forecast, when to turn right, that there’s been another message in my group chat. Day or night, Dame Judi is eager to assist. When I ask the eight-time Academy Award nominee what I’m looking at, she answers: a residential area, a person in a pub, daffodils
‘After one gig, someone stole my car with my dole money in it’: Morcheeba on how they made The Sea
Jayson Gillham announces tour with Palestinian-Jordanian musician ahead of MSO court case
Fill that Glasto-shaped hole! The 40 best UK festivals you can still book
Shaun Micallef: ‘Charlie Pickering said that’s the only thing keeping him going – to vanquish me’
I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t
The Guide #236: Is celebrity casting a cynical marketing stunt or does it help to democratise theatre?