Michael Vaughan’s ‘livelihood at stake,’ Yorkshire racism meeting told

The former England captain is accused by the England and Wales Cricket Board of making a racist comment to Azeem Rafiq and three other Yorkshire players before a match in 2009.

Since the charges were brought, Vaughan lost roles as a television pundit and revealed at the hearing in London that his health and wellbeing had suffered.

Christopher Stoner, KC, told the Cricket Discipline Commission: ‘This is obviously a matter of significant importance to my client. The shape of his life and livelihood are at stake.

‘We simply say the evidence does not make up the charge.’

Vaughan is alleged to have told Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Ajmal Shahzad: ‘There’s too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that.’

Stoner accused the ECB of backtracking due to a discrepancy concerning the second half of the comment, as Rafiq also recalled it was: ‘We need to do something about it.’

ECB lawyer Jane Mulcahy, KC, admitted it was ‘a bit messy’ but she reiterated that the panel should focus on the key words ‘you lot’.

Vaughan, who attended the hearing on Friday, maintains he has no recollection of making the comment, and his lawyer cited what he called ‘the frailties of human recollection’ of an incident that took place almost 14 years ago. ‘Mr Rafiq says he has a clear recollection but not of the exact words,’ said Stoner.

‘He said it made him feel sick and angry but he didn’t speak about it for 11 years. We say it’s inherently improbable he would not have 
spoken about it to someone.’

Stoner also criticised what he called the ‘wholly inadequate’ investigation by the ECB, notably its 
failure to contact other players involved in the match, the umpires or a Sky camera operator whose footage formed part of the evidence.

Earlier, Mulcahy had asserted that it was ‘inherently probable’ that Vaughan made the comment. The ECB’s closing submission read: ‘Michael Vaughan cannot refute the words because he cannot remember saying them. Instead, he asserts he would not have said those words.’

MORE : Tim Bresnan and Matthew Hoggard revealed to be at centre of Azeem Rafiq’s racism claims

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