Former England captain, Michael Vaughan who was accused of using racist language towards his teammates at Yorkshire back in 2009, was cleared of all charges on Friday. The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) set up by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) cleared Vaughan of all charges saying th a t they were "not satisfied on the balance of probabilities" that Vaughan made the comment.
Notably, Vaughan was accused of telling Azeem Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan: "There are too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that." The incident was alleged to have occurred in 2009 while he was playing for Yorkshire. However, Vaughan has now been cleared of the charge by the CDC following a hearing held earlier this month. And he confirmed the news in a statement on social media on Friday.
"It has been both difficult and upsetting to hear about the painful experiences which Azeem has described over the past 3 years," Vaughan said. "The outcome of these CDC proceedings must not be allowed to detract from the core message that there can be no place for racism in the game of cricket, or in society generally.
"As with others who have spoken about their time at Yorkshire, I can only speak of my own experiences and of my own time there. The dismissal of the specific charge that concerned me takes nothing away from Azeem's own lived experiences. The hearing made public that Azeem and I met eighteen months ago, well before the CDC proceedings came into existence.
"I told him then that I am sorry for his unacceptable, negative experiences at the club I love and in the sport I love. We had what I thought was a really positive and constructive discussion. We shook hands with a shared intention to work together in order to create positive change in cricket.
"For my part, nothing has altered in that respect. There is still a job to do and I remain keen to help bring about positive change in any way that I can. Cricket has been my life. Particularly with an issue such as this, CDC proceedings were an inappropriate, inadequate and backwards step.
"One of many reasons why I hold that view is because CDC proceedings are adversarial. They invite claim and counterclaim. They invite those involved to accuse each other of untruths or of lying. The inevitable consequence of the ECB's decision-making was that 3 former teammates, one of whom is a current England international player, were pitted against one another in what later became a public forum for the world at large to see.
"Despite being criticised by the ECB for not accusing others of lying. I remain of the view that no good can come of that approach. There are no winners in this process and there are better ways — there have to be better ways - for cricket to move forward positively and effectively.
