[ad_1]
Former England captain Michael Vaughan will not be involved in the BBC’s coverage of the Ashes in Australia.
The 47-year-old, who was stood down from his BBC Radio 5 Live show earlier in November, will also not be involved in the BBC’s “wider coverage of the sport at the moment”.
Vaughan has repeatedly denied the allegation made against him.
England will play five Tests against Australia, with the first starting on 8 December in Brisbane.
Vaughan joined the BBC’s Test Match Special radio team as a summariser in 2009.
“While he is involved in a significant story in cricket, for editorial reasons we do not believe that it would be appropriate for Michael Vaughan to have a role in our Ashes team or wider coverage of the sport at the moment,” said a BBC statement.
“We require our contributors to talk about relevant topics and his involvement in the Yorkshire story represents a conflict of interest.”
Azeem Rafiq alleged Vaughan said “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” to him and three other players during a County Championship match for Yorkshire in 2009.
Rafiq’s account was supported by former Pakistan bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who said they heard the comment.
The fourth player in the group – bowler Ajmal Shahzad – previously told the Daily Mail he had no recollection of the event and “the senior guys were really good to me”.
Vaughan wrote in his Daily Telegraph column that he “totally denies” making the comment.
In a statement made earlier in November, Vaughan said: “I categorically deny saying the words attributed to me by Azeem Rafiq and want to re-state this publicly because the ‘you lot’ comment simply never happened.
“It is extremely upsetting that this completely false accusation has been made against me by a former team-mate, apparently supported by two other players.
“I have been in contact with the six other players from that team and not one of them has any recollection of the remark being made.”
Rafiq criticised Vaughan when he appeared in front of a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee earlier in November.
“It’s important on Michael that we don’t make it all about Michael,” Rafiq said of Vaughan’s newspaper column, where the ex-England captain had revealed he was named in the Yorkshire investigation.
[ad_2]
Source link
