Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, will not be a part of the Ashes coverage after being named in the racism allegations by former Yorkshire player, Azeem Rafiq. Vaughan was part of the BBC panel and was a part of their coverage for the upcoming Ashes.
“While he is involved in a significant story in cricket, for editorial reasons we do not believe that it would be appropriate for Vaughan to have a role in our Ashes team or wider coverage of the sport at the moment,” BBC stated.
“We require our contributors to talk about relevant topics and his involvement in the Yorkshire story represents a conflict of interest,” they added.
Azeem Rafiq’s revelation about the racism he faced during his playing days with Yorkshire has sent shockwaves in the English cricket setup and throughout the cricketing world. Azeem’s allegations have brought to light the racism that has been faced by cricketers of Asian descent and people of color within the English cricket setup.
Azeem named a lot of cricketers including Vaughan in the deep-rooted racism in English cricket. Azeem revealed that Vaughan said that there are “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” while talking to players of Asian descent during a match in 2009. While Vaughan has denied the accusations, more players have come forward backing Azeem’s story. Former Pakistan all-rounder, Rana Naved ul Hasan, was one of the players that backed Azeem’s statement.
Vaughan said that he is obviously disappointed at being removed from BBC’s Ashes coverage but the issue at hand is much larger than his involvement in BBC’s coverage. Vaughan said that he wants to be a part of the solution and wants cricket to be a welcoming sport to any player from any part of the world regardless of his or her religion and race.
