{"id":17010,"date":"2023-03-03T19:17:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T19:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/03\/michael-vaughan-denies-using-racist-language-thats-not-what-i-am-about\/"},"modified":"2023-03-03T19:17:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T19:17:30","slug":"michael-vaughan-denies-using-racist-language-thats-not-what-i-am-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/03\/michael-vaughan-denies-using-racist-language-thats-not-what-i-am-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Vaughan denies using racist language: \u2018That\u2019s not what I am about\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan<\/a> has categorically denied using racist language to four Asian players in 2009, telling a disciplinary hearing: \u201cThat\u2019s not what I am about\u201d.<\/p>\n

On a day when Azeem Rafiq<\/a> was accused of playing \u201cthe race card\u201d and the thoroughness of the ECB\u2019s investigation was questioned Vaughan took the stand to reject claims that he said: \u201cThere\u2019s too many of you lot; we have to have a word about that\u201d to the players before a Twenty20 game between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.<\/p>\n

Vaughan accepted that the phrase, which Rafiq, Adil Rashid and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan allege was said after a team huddle, was racist and discriminatory. But he insisted it was not in his mentality to use it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have a very clear mind about, back in 2009, that I know I didn\u2019t say the words I\u2019ve been alleged to have said,\u201d said Vaughan. \u201cIf you go through the history of me as a player, I don\u2019t know of a time when I could put my teammates in a bad state of mind to go out and win a cricket match. That\u2019s not what I\u2019m about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving evidence to the Cricket Discipline Commission hearing, which is investigating racism in Yorkshire<\/a> cricket, Vaughan said the TV evidence of him shaking hands with the four Asian players before the game showed \u201cI couldn\u2019t have been more proud\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted them to be loved in the environment,\u201d added Vaughan. \u201cOne of my main strengths, which many people applauded me for, was creating a culture, managing people, making sure they were in the right place to deliver their skill. I have always gone out of my way to make people feel loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

But under cross-examination from Jane Mulcahy KC, counsel for the ECB, Vaughan admitted he had sent three historical tweets that were \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of them, in 2010, was about service offered by telephone directory 118 118. \u201cWhy when you ring 118 118 are all the people who answer foreign,\u201d Vaughan had tweeted. \u201cCan\u2019t make heads or tails of what they are saying. Annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this your tweet?\u201d asked Mulcahy. \u201cAbsolutely it is, and it is unacceptable,\u201d replied Vaughan. He told the hearing that he had since had inclusion training and learned from his mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019re also the person who sent those tweets?\u201d said Mulcahy. \u201cYes,\u201d Vaughan replied. \u201cBut when I do something wrong I stick my hand up and say I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>Azeem Rafiq arrives for the third day of the Cricket Discipline Commission panel hearing in London.<\/span> Photograph: James Manning\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vaughan also discussed meeting Rafiq for three or four hours in November 2021, in what he claimed was a bid to diffuse the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it was getting too big, hurting too many people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not been easy for anybody, this. I don\u2019t think this is the right process to deal with a word-versus-word process from 14 years ago. Whatever happens, this has a terrible look on the game, a real bad look on how cricket has dealt with this situation. I wanted to be a leader, I listened, I apologised. The message was \u2018let\u2019s work together\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the third day of evidence, there were also claims from Matthew Wood, Rafiq\u2019s former personal development manager at the Professional Cricketers\u2019 Association, that Rafiq had played the \u201crace card\u201d.<\/p>\n

To support his claims, Wood cited an August 2018 meeting when he alleged that Azeem said he would sign a new contract with Yorkshire if they removed \u201ccertain people\u201d. \u201cI then asked Azeem, \u201cAnd what will you do if they don\u2019t offer you a new contract\u201d. Azeem replied with words to the effect of \u201cI\u2019ll just hit them with the race card\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wood also claimed that Rafiq \u201chad used being Asian as leverage\u201d when he had missed the deadline for an ECB coaching course in 2020. However, under cross-examination Mulcahy told him he was mistaken on this point as Rafiq had sent a postal application for the course early.<\/p>\n

She also questioned why Wood had never mentioned Rafiq\u2019s alleged comments in 2018 during the first investigation into racism at Yorkshire. \u201cThe reason you didn\u2019t is that Mr Rafiq didn\u2019t play the race card,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n

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