Former England captain Michael Vaughan will RETURN to the BBC this summer for coverage of the Ashes and Test match against Ireland after the ECB’s accusations of racism against him were dismissed
- Michael Vaughan returns to the BBC this summer for their cricket coverage
- He was accused of telling Yorkshire teammates ‘there are too many’
- The 48-year-old was cleared of racism charges by the ECB in March
Former England captain Michael Vaughn returns to the BBC for coverage of the men’s Ashes series and test match against Ireland this summer.
The 48-year-old has not worked for the BBC since he was charged last year by the ECB for allegedly using racist language against Yorkshire teammates.
But Vaughan, who was accused of telling Azeem Rafiq and other teammates ‘there are too many, we need to talk about that’, had his reputation restored in March when a Cricket Discipline Commission found the allegation was ‘not proven’.
After an eight-day hearing in March with the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission released their findings who concluded that the case against Vaughan was unproven.
The verdict stated that “on the basis of probability” Vaughan did not use racist language “at the time and in the specific circumstances alleged.”
The former England captain was cleared of racism charges by the ECB earlier last week
The former England captain was cleared of racism charges by the ECB earlier in March
Azeem Rafiq was one of those Yorkshire players of Asian descent who was reportedly the subject of Vaughan’s comments in 2009
The CDC found that five former Yorkshire players – Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Richard Pyrah and John Blain – had used racist language during their time at Headingley, although some charges against them were dismissed.
Gary Ballance had already pleaded guilty to using racist language and the CDC was due to issue sanctions before the end of next month.
Vaughan contacted Rafiq after the verdict, but was scathing with the ECB, whose disciplinary processes were widely criticized by all parties involved.
The 48-year-old has not worked in cricket since being sacked by the BBC, but will return again this summer.
Vaughan, who captained England between 2003 and 2008, was involved in BBC’s coverage of the Ashes series from 2021-2022, but returned in March 2022 before retiring.
Since his retirement in 2009 he has worked for BBC, ITV, BT Sport and Australia Fox Sports.
England take on Ireland on June 1 in their first test match of the summer before the Ashes kick off on June 16.