Former England batter Rainford-Brent target of racist hate letter

 

Former England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent revealed on Wednesday she had received hate mail with racist abuse where the sender had asked her to "leave our country".

Rainford-Brent, the first Black woman to play for England when she made her debut in 2001 aged 17, shared an image of the handwritten letter on social media - two days after Azeem Rafiq gave damning testimony that catalogued racism in the sport.

The letter contained a number of expletives and asked the 37-year-old, 'Who invited you to my country?' and described her as "illiterate, primitive" and being found "naked in Africa".

"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 (is) up there," Rainford-Brent wrote on Twitter https://twitter.com/ejrainfordbrent/status/1461058046650691584.

Rainford-Brent played for England for nine years and was awarded the MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list earlier this year for her services to the sport and charity.

Now a commentator, she teamed up with former West Indies cricketer Michael Holding last year to discuss racism and the Black Lives Matter movement.