The BBC has announced former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan will not be involved for ‘editorial reasons’ in BBC’s upcoming coverage of the Ashes in Australia.
Manchester-born Vaughan was named in a report into cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s claims of racism he experienced during his time at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
During an investigation into alleged racism during his time at the club, Rafiq alleged the former England captain had said “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” during a match in Yorkshire in 2009 to him and several other players.
Vaughan, who has worked for the BBC as a presenter and commentator since 2009, has repeatedly denied the allegation made against him.
Responding to the allegations in a statement earlier in November he said: “I categorically deny saying the words attributed to me by Azeem Rafiq and want to re-state this publicly because the ‘you lot’ comment simply never happened.
“It is extremely upsetting that this completely false accusation has been made against me by a former team-mate, apparently supported by two other players.”
He was “stood down” by the BBC from his Radio 5 live’s Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket show earlier this month.
In a statement, the BBC said: “While he is involved in a significant story in cricket, for editorial reasons we do not believe that it would be appropriate for Michael Vaughan to have a role in our Ashes team or wider coverage of the sport at the moment.
“We require our contributors to talk about relevant topics and his involvement in the Yorkshire story represents a conflict of interest.”
