The former England captain has strongly denied the allegations
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has claimed he heard Michael Vaughan making racially insensitive comments to a group of Asian players while at Yorkshire.
Rana played at Yorkshire as the county’s overseas player between 2008 and 2009. As reported by ESPNcricinfo, he says he remembers an incident in 2009 at Trent Bridge where he was alongside Azeem Rafiq when Vaughan allegedly said: “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it.”
Yorkshire have lost a series of sponsorship deals and been suspended from hosting England matches after Rafiq made a series of allegations of racism. On Friday, it was announced that their chairman Roger Hutton had resigned ahead of an emergency meeting.
Vaughan, a former England captain, admitted on Thursday that he was named in the club’s report into Azeem’s allegations but used his column in the Telegraph to deny that he had ever said anything racist.
“I completely and categorically deny that I ever said those words,” Vaughan said. “This hit me very hard. It was like being struck over the head with a brick. I have been involved in cricket for 30 years and never once been accused of any remotely similar incident or disciplinary offence as a player or commentator.”
Rana has made it clear that he would be willing to provide evidence to any inquiry relating to Vaughan’s alleged comments.
The ECB statement confirming that Headingley will not be used for England games for the foreseeable future also confirmed that Yorkshire batsman Gary Ballance, who admitted to using racist language towards Rafiq, has been suspended indefinitely from England selection.
- Yorkshire County Cricket Club chairman resigns amid deepening racism row
- ECB suspend Yorkshire from hosting England matches
- Yorkshire Tea end partnership with Yorkshire CC over race row
