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The BBC has dropped former England captain Michael Vaughan from a radio show next week after he was named in a report looking into allegations of institutional racism at Yorkshire made by former player Azeem Rafiq.
In a column for The Telegraph on Thursday, Vaughan, 47, said he was alleged to have told Rafiq and two other Asian players as they walked onto the field together that there were “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it”.
Vaughan, who played for Yorkshire between 1993 and 2009, strenuously denies making the comments.
The BBC said in a statement: “(We) take any allegations of racism extremely seriously.
“The allegation against Michael Vaughan pre-dates his time working for the BBC, we were not part of the investigation conducted by Yorkshire County Cricket Club and we have had no access to the subsequent report.
“However, we were made aware of a single allegation which Michael strongly denies and we have been monitoring the situation closely.
“We have made the editorial decision that Michael won’t appear as a presenter on 5 Live’s Tuffers and Vaughan Show on Monday.”
Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton resigned earlier on Friday, accusing the club’s executives of failing to accept and learn from racism allegations raised by Rafiq.
The club said that Hanif Malik and Stephen Willis had also stepped down from its board and that Lord Kamlesh Patel had been appointed to replace Hutton.
Rafiq, a player of Pakistani descent and a former captain of the England Under-19s, said last year he was made to feel like an outsider at Yorkshire and contemplated taking his own life.
Meanwhile the Yorkshire club chairman has quit as the club struggled to contain the crisis.
Roger Hutton said on Friday that he had resigned “with immediate effect”, while citing the club’s unwillingness to accept the claims by Rafiq and its refusal to apologise.
“There has been a constant unwillingness from the executive members of the board and senior management at the club to apologise, and to accept that there was racism, and to look forward,” Hutton said.
“For much of my time at the club, I experienced a culture that refuses to accept change or challenge.”
Hutton has been replaced by Kamlesh Patel, the chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s South Asian advisory group and a former board member.
Patel said Yorkshire “needs to learn from its past errors, regain trust and rebuild relationships with our communities.”
A formal investigation was commissioned by Yorkshire in September 2020 into 43 allegations made by Rafiq, with seven of them upheld in a report released only in September under pressure from lawmakers. It found Rafiq – a former captain – was the victim of racial harassment and bullying.
The UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid called for “heads to roll.” Julian Knight, the chair of a government select committee, called Yorkshire’s moves “repellent and disturbing.”
On Wednesday, former England cricketer Gary Ballance admitted using a racial slur against Rafiq when they were teammates at Yorkshire, but said “this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate.”
Yorkshire has been suspended by the ECB from hosting international matches, including an England Test against New Zealand in 2022 and an Ashes Test in 2023.
The ECB has started its own investigation and slammed the club for its “wholly unacceptable” response to the racism faced by Rafiq.
Several sponsors, including kit supplier Nike, have deserted Yorkshire.
Founded more than 150 years ago, Yorkshire is the most successful team in English cricket.
Hutton joined the Yorkshire board in 2020, almost two years after Rafiq ended his second stint at the club, and said he has never met the player.
“During my time as chairman, I take responsibility for failing to persuade them to take appropriate and timely action,” Hutton said on Friday.
© AAP
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