Yorkshire racism scandal: Michael Vaughan cleared- three cases against Mathew Hoggard were proven

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 31 March, 2023

 

• The Cricket Discipline Commission has released its conclusions on Friday (31).
• Former England captain Michael Vaughan is cleared of using racist language at the Yorkshire Club.
• Mathew Hoggard, former England, and Yorkshire bowler found to have used racist and discriminatory language.

 

FIVE former players were found guilty of counts of putting the sport into disgrace using racist and/or discriminatory statements, by the ECB’s independent Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) tribunal.

However, Michael Vaughan, a former captain of England, was adjudged not guilty “on the balance of probabilities” of using racial slurs against his former team-mate Azeem Rafiq.

Matthew Hoggard, former England bowler and Tim Bresnan, former Scotland seamer John Blain, and two former Yorkshire players who are now managers, Andrew Gale and Rich Pyrah, were all found guilty by the CDC of defaming the game.

Three of the four charges against Hoggard were found to be proven by the CDC panel, including allegations that he used the term “Rafa the K*****” to refer to Rafiq. Bresnan was found guilty of one charge of using racist and/or discriminatory language, specifically the term “fit P***”; Pyrah was found to have used the same phrase.

Former England batter Gary Ballance earlier acknowledged the allegation against him, and Yorkshire previously accepted four amended charges.

In September 2021, a Yorkshire-commissioned independent inquiry upheld seven of Rafiq’s 43 allegations, while an ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) investigation that began in October 2021 brought charges against the club and others.

“I feel vindicated,” Azeem Rafiq told. “Seven out of the eight charges have been upheld and, most importantly, one of the main reasons I spoke out was to highlight the wider problems across the game and the institutional racism at YCCC.

“I think that’s been proven over and over again.”

He added: “I’ve been pushed way more than I can handle throughout the last two and a half years. It’s been difficult in a lot of ways, but the hearing was closure for me.”

The CDC panel found that the ECB’s claim that Vaughan said, “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about that,” in front of four Yorkshire players of Asian origin before a T20 match at Trent Bridge had not been proven “on the balance of probabilities,” says the report.

The 82-page CDC decision was released on Friday (31) morning at 10.30 after the case against Vaughan and five other former Yorkshire players was reviewed earlier this month. Vaughan, however, announced the dismissal of the allegations against him in advance on Instagram.