The Indian sub-continent thrives on diverse religions and culture. But when it comes to sport, there is only one winner, and that is cricket. In Britain, the game continues to be popular as the national teams are doing very well in all formats.

The British Asian community continues to be passionate about the sport with the occasional dilemma as to who to support – England or a sub-continent team? But despite such popularity and fanaticism of the sport, there are only a handful of Asians established at the highest level.

Last year the English & Wales Cricket Board carried out a survey which showed 30% of those taking part in grassroots cricket come from a South Asian background. And the Club Cricket Conference, an association of 1,000 clubs in the south of England, believes the 30% figure from the ECB survey should, in fact, be around 40%-45%.

But the figure drops dramatically to just 6.2% among players who appeared in first-team country cricket. Of the 18 first-class counties, five did not have any from Asian backgrounds in their team.

The ECB has acknowledged that work is required on its part, and are putting strategies in place to “identify and engage with 10,000 Asian cricketers’ by 2017”. One such strategy has been to recently appoint Lord Patel of Bradford to its Board of Directors who task will be to improve the links between the ECB and British Asian communities. Lord Patel is passionate about the sport and has strong links at grassroots. He has worked for the Yorkshire Cricket Academy as a part time coach.

In his day job, Lord Patel is among the leading voice on health, social care and community cohesion.  A former ambulance-man, special constable and social worker, Lord Patel has retained a keen interest in cricket.

He is the first British Asian to be appointed to the 14-strong Board. Last year he served on the judging panel of the inaugural Asian Cricket Awards supported by ECB.

Commenting on his appointment, ECB Chairman Colin Graves said: “Lord Patel’s instinctive grasp of the role cricket plays in uniting communities and crossing social barriers will be all important as we continue to change how we work as an organisation. He is a hugely respected figure and his sound judgement and expertise will be an enormous asset to the Board and the wider game.”

Lord Patel said: “Cricket has been a life-long passion of mine and this is a great honour for me. I am a huge advocate of what the sport can bring to the wider community – from instilling life-skills like self-discipline and leadership to improving fitness and tackling wider issues like obesity.

“I am also naturally very honoured and proud to be the first British Asian chosen to serve as an ECB Board Director and keen to explore ways in which cricket can better engage with Britain’s diverse communities, particularly the South Asian community, and take full advantage of the many different ways in which we can widen the game’s appeal still further.”

Currently a Professor at the University of East London and Chair of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust, Lord Patel is a former Chair of the Mental Health Act Commission. He served as a government minister in the House of Lords from 2008-2009 and on the shadow front-bench in the upper house from 2010-2012.

His achievements include delivering a five-year action plan for delivering race equality in mental health care; acting as the senior Ministerial advisor for a major government initiative tackling extremism and chairing a national taskforce looking at the effectiveness of prison drug treatment.