BBC drops Michael Vaughan from Ashes commentary panel owing to editorial reasons

The incidents of racism have taken the cricket world by storm where incidents don’t seem to stop after Azeem Rafiq stood up to talk about his ordeals. In the recent turn of events, the reports are getting bigger as BBC has dropped Michael Vaughan from their commentary panel for covering the upcoming Ashes.

The big decision comes from BBC as Vaughan is said to be involved in the ongoing investigation at Yorkshire. Vaughan has been accused by Rafiq of making racist remarks during a Yorkshire game in 2009. Adding to it, Adil Rashid and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan backed the comments made by Rafiq.

“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. We require our contributors to talk about relevant topics and his involvement in the Yorkshire story represents a conflict of interest,” BBC said in a statement.

These allegations hit me very hard: Michael Vaughan

It was earlier this month when BBC dropped Tuffers and Vaughan after the 47-year-old accepted that he has been accused of using racist comments by Rafiq during his stay in the Yorkshire club. However, Vaughan might be heard in the UK, as he is in contract to commentate for the broadcaster which is Australia’s Fox Network. BT Sport would be going by the same commentary. It has to be noted that Vaughan has been accused of telling Asian players, ‘Too many of you lot, we need to do something about it.’

“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 have never once been accused of any remotely similar incident or disciplinary offense as a player or commentator.

“That the allegation came completely out of the blue and more than a decade after it was alleged to have happened made it all the more difficult to process. I completely and categorically deny that I ever said those words,” stated Vaughan.