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Michael Vaughan stood down from BBC duty amid racism allegations

The BBC have confirmed that former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan will not appear as sch...



Michael Vaughan stood down fro...
Other Sports

Michael Vaughan stood down from BBC duty amid racism allegations

The BBC have confirmed that former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan will not appear as scheduled this Monday. 

The 47-year old is facing allegations of racist remarks made to Azeem Rafiq and two other Asian teammates at Yorkshire in 2009.

Vaughan was due to host the Tuffers and Vaughan Show on BBC Radio 5Live on Monday evening. He "completely and categorically" denies the allegations levelled at him.

The claims of racism are contained within a report that followed Yorkshire Cricket Club's investigation into racism allegations made by Rafiq.

In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan revealed that he'd been named in the Rafiq Report.

He's alleged to have told his Yorkshire teammates that there were "too many of you lot, we need to do something about it".

Another ex-Yorkshire player, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, has backed up Rafiq's claim regarding Vaughan.

It's just the latest chapter in a saga that has seen three board members and chairman Roger Hutton resign their positions at Yorkshire over the club's handling of the Rafiq case.

Stephen Willis and Hanif Malik have now gone immediately, with Neil Hartley to depart once a new leadership team is in place.

Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford will take over as director and chair.

Addressing the Vaughan allegations, a BBC statement read: "The BBC takes 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.

"The show focuses on topical discussion around current cricketing matters and given his personal involvement, we need to ensure we maintain the impartiality of the programme. We remain in discussion with Michael and his team."

Az

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Azeem Rafiq BBC Cricket Michael Vaughan Racism Yorkshire Yorkshire Cricket Club