England chief Ashley Giles lends support to Michael Vaughan after BBC suspension

Vaughan has been removed from Ashes coverage by the BBC after being accused of making a racist remark towards Asian players while at Yorkshire in 2009

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Sajid Javid discusses Yorkshire cricket racism scandal

Under-fire former England captain Michael Vaughan has found an ally in his old Ashes-winning team-mate Ashley Giles after being implicated in the ongoing row over racism in the sport.

The 48-year-old Warwickshire legend has called for Vaughan to be given “a second chance” after he was accused of making a derogatory comment towards Asian players during his time with Yorkshire by whistleblower Azeem Rafiq.

He is alleged to have told a group of players that there were “too many of you lot” in 2009.

Vaughan has repeatedly denied the allegations, but in his first interview since the accusation was made he did apologise to Rafiq for the “huge amount of hurt” he endured across his two separate spell with the club.

Despite his denial, Rafiq’s claims have been supported by former team-mates Adil Rashid and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

And Vaughan has been removed from both his radio show with fellow former England man Phil Tuffnell and the BBC’s coverage of this winter’s Ashes series.

He has been defended by former team-mate and current managing director of England Giles, who called for people to be given the chance to make up for past mistakes.

“I can’t comment on what the BBC should do with one of their employees,” Giles said when asked about the situation.

“But I think tolerance is really important. We all make mistakes and we all will again.

“But we have to be able to tolerate, educate and rehabilitate otherwise people aren’t going to open up, share their experiences and learn.”

Though he had called for tolerance, Giles also said cricket should “absolutely” have a “zero-tolerance” policy when it comes to accepting discriminatory behaviour.

“Does zero-tolerance mean we shouldn’t accept discrimination and racism?” he asked.

“Absolutely. But not giving second chances? I’m not sure that’s a healthy way forward. We all know this can be a bit of a minefield.

“Even the language we use around this area changes almost by the month.

“So for me we’ve got to not only educate more but we have to call out issues much more effectively if we see them happening in the dressing room because perhaps all of us in the past – and not just in cricket – have let things go.”

Giles’ comments represent the first time a high-ranking England official has spoken about the scandal since it first came to light.

But he said the whole group in Australia had discussed the situation at length in private.

“There’s been a lot of reflection on this side of the world within our group,” he added. “Many of us sat up and watched the select committee hearing and listened to Azeem’s testimony.

“I found both his personal story of the tragedy that he and his wife suffered and of course the experience of discrimination pretty hard to listen to, as I’m sure we all did.

“I’ll let the players speak for themselves in time but listening to them it’s interesting that in this area they’ve almost learned most from speaking to each other in the dressing room.

“I’m very proud of the diversity we have in our team. These guys have a huge amount of respect for each other. I’d go so far as to say they love each other in the way they operate together.

“I know this whole group is keen to make a big difference in this area.”