Warning: The article below contains subject matter that readers may find offensive and distressing; Cricket Discipline Commission hearing into alleged historical racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club continues in London
Saturday 4 March 2023 07:05, UK
Michael Vaughan insisted it was "inconceivable" that he would make the racist comment he has been accused of by Azeem Rafiq.
Former England captain Vaughan began his defence against an England and Wales Cricket Board charge of using racist and/or discriminatory language in London on Friday.
Vaughan said the entire process was a "terrible look" for cricket and that he had tried to meet with Rafiq to reach an amicable resolution.
The charge was read out to Vaughan by ECB lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC, who said: "You agree the words 'there's too many of you lot, we have to have a word about that' are totally unacceptable?"
"Absolutely," replied Vaughan.
"And racist and discriminatory?" asked Mulcahy.
"Absolutely," said Vaughan, who in his witness statement said: "I consider it to be inconceivable that I would use the words contained in the allegation."
Vaughan was cross-examined in front of the public Cricket Discipline Commission hearing into Rafiq's claims of racism at Yorkshire. The 48-year-old was alleged to have made the "you lot" comment to four Asian team-mates; Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Ajmal Shahzad, moments after a team huddle prior to a T20 match in 2009.
"I have a very clear mind about, back in 2009, that I know I didn't say the words I've been alleged to have said," said Vaughan. "If you go through the history of me as a player I don't know any time I'd have gone onto a pitch and said something to my team-mates that would have put them in a bad state of mind to play cricket.
"That comment I'm alleged to have said would have put my team-mates in a position not to be able to perform to their maximum."
Mulcahy brought up a historical tweet from Vaughan from 2010 about the service offered by telephone directory 118 118.
He wrote: "Why when you ring 118 118 are all the people who answer foreign... Can't make heads or tails of what they are saying.. Annoying."
"Is this your tweet?" asked Mulcahy.
"Absolutely it is, and it is unacceptable," said Vaughan.
Rafiq and Rashid have both said they felt no offence was meant in Vaughan's alleged comment, and that it was probably just "bad humour".
Mulcahy said: "I'm going to suggest to you the tweets are similar to the comment. Light-hearted but cause offence."
"I have to keep going back to my recollections of that game," said Vaughan. "You've got three or four Asian players in the team at the same time, I couldn't have been more proud."
"The tweets you then sent, do you think they would be offensive to Mr Rafiq?" asked Mulcahy.
"Absolutely," said Vaughan. "In 2021, when the historical tweets [surfaced], I straight away was disgusted with them and apologised for them."
Asked by Mulcahy if he saw the Asian players as being different, Vaughan added: "I wanted to make sure they were loved in the environment.
"I thought one of my main strengths was creating a culture, managing people. I'm a person who likes to manage people, make sure they are in the right space, in the right mentality to deliver their skill. I've always gone out of my way to make sure people are loved."
Mulcahy said: "But you're also the person who sent those tweets?"
Vaughan replied: "Yes. But when I do something wrong I stick my hand up and say I'm wrong.
"When I'm in a group I would not be saying something that could put four of my team-mates into a position of not performing."
Vaughan arranged a meeting with Rafiq in November 2021 and recalled: "It lasted three or four hours. We had fish and chips [from Rafiq's shop], they were nice."
Mulcahy asked Vaughan why, if he was adamant nothing had happened, he would take the initiative to arrange a meeting with Rafiq.
Vaughan said: "I felt it was getting too big, hurting too many people. It's not been easy for anybody, this. I don't think this is the right process to deal with a word-versus-word process from 14 years ago. Whatever happens, this has a terrible look on the game, a real bad look on how cricket has dealt with this situation.
"I wanted to be a leader, I listened, I apologised. The message was 'let's work together'. This had got to a stage where it's become far too public, too media-orientated.
"We have to expose discrimination and make sure people are held accountable but I just feel that by having conversations, from that meeting, I thought we were on the right platform in working together and helping each other but that's not been the case."
Rafiq was accused of being prepared to use the "race card" by Matthew Wood, a former personal development manager at the Professional Cricketers' Association, who appeared as a witness in defence of Vaughan.
In his witness statement Wood, himself an ex-Yorkshire player, said: "In my dealings with Azeem, I was aware of two occasions in which he [directly or indirectly] acknowledged that he would be prepared to use the 'race card'.
"By that, I understood Azeem to mean that he would make, or allude to, an allegation of racism in bad faith in order to gain an advantage."
Wood said in his written statement that those two occasions were in 2018, when he and Rafiq spoke about whether the player might be offered a new contract, and in 2019 when Rafiq was in discussions over trying to be accepted on to a level four coaching course.
On the first of those occasions, Wood said in his written statement: "I asked Azeem, 'And what will you do if Yorkshire don't offer you a new contract?' Azeem replied with words to the effect of, 'I'll just hit them with the race card'."
England and Wales Cricket Board lawyer Jane Mulcahy cross-examined Wood and referenced Rafiq's witness statement, in which Rafiq said Wood's assertion about the coaching course was "an odd thing to claim". Mulcahy set out the process by which Rafiq said he had applied for the coaching course.
Mulcahy told the hearing Wood had not made reference to Rafiq 'using the race card' when speaking to Yorkshire investigators or the employment tribunal involving Rafiq.
"The reason you didn't is that Mr Rafiq didn't play the race card," she said.
Wood replied: "At the time, it wasn't asked and I wasn't sure where it was going. My superiors at the PCA knew about Rafiq's comments and I later added it to my statement."
In Wood's second witness statement he recalled a phone call with Rafiq in late 2020, during which he claimed Rafiq said he "never intended for things to get this big", but that he felt he "had to stick with it now things have got this far".
Wood said: "I remember asking him, 'How does this all end Azeem?' and Azeem replied, 'Someone has to pay', to which I said, 'Pay for what?' and then Azeem said, 'I don't know'."
Sky Sports News are seeking a response from Rafiq about Wood's comments.
Rafiq gave evidence on day two of the public Cricket Discipline Commission.
Warning: The copy below contains subject matter and language that readers may find offensive and distressing.
Fellow former Yorkshire players Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, John Blain, Andrew Gale and Richard Pyrah all face charges related to the use of racially discriminatory language, although Vaughan is the only one to contest the charges in person.
Hoggard has already admitted using the word "P***" towards Asian players and Mulcahy asked Vaughan if he thought the term was racist.
"Absolutely," Vaughan replied.
Vaughan was then asked about the period of time in which he had been a team-mate of Hoggard.
"It's like 'A Question Of Sport', this," he joked.
There was a less jovial tone to Vaughan's witness statement in which he referenced the toll being accused of making a racist remark had taken on him.
"Being named and implicated in this matter has had a profound effect on me," he said. "My health and personal wellbeing have suffered badly."
Meanwhile, Liz Neto, who was head of HR at Yorkshire, recounted phone conversations with Adil Rashid in her witness statement in which the player "indicated to me he was being pressured to corroborate allegations of racism then being made, even though he didn't want to".
"He said to me he had told Mr Rafiq, 'No matter how many times you tell me I heard it Azeem, I cannot remember hearing it'," said Neto.
England bowler Rashid gave evidence on Thursday and backed up Rafiq's allegation about Vaughan's comment.
"That's just not what he said to me," Neto said under cross-examination. "He told me on more than one occasion that he couldn't remember it."
Vaughan's lawyer Christopher Stoner KC had earlier criticised the thoroughness of the ECB's investigation and the governing body's failure to contact other players involved in the match, the umpires or a Sky camera operator whose
footage formed part of the evidence.
