03 March 2023 , 18:20
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Michael Vaughan has hit back at Azeem Rafiq’s allegations he used racist language towards four Asian team-mates by insisting: “That is not what I’m about.”
The former England captain was under cross examination and reiterated his stance several times that he did not recollect using the phrase: “There are too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that,” about the Asian players in 2009.
Despite admitting he could not remember what he said on the day nearly 14 years ago, Vaughan was adamant that his record in the game over more than 30 years illustrated his strongly held belief that he would never have said anything to a team-mate before a match to put them in a ‘bad state of mind.’
Vaughan said: “I consider it to be inconceivable that I would use the words contained in the allegation.”
And far from having an issue with the Asian players, he insists he ‘could not have been more proud’ of the fact that there were four of them in the same team with three having come through the county’s academy system.
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He did however apologise profusely for a series of historic tweets between 2010 and 2017 that the ECB’s legal team suggested shows that Vaughan was more than capable of making the comment he denies.
Azeem Rafiq arrives for day three of the ECB hearing (PA)Vaughan admitted his shame over the tweets that referred to foreigners answering the 118 118 directory number, and the need to learn a new language because ‘not many English people live in London.’
Vaughan said: “I apologise for those tweets and I’ve held my hand up about them. The tweets are disgusting. I put myself through an online inclusion course because I needed to learn.
"I wanted to lead the game to know what modern standards are. That is what I do in life, when I get things wrong I hold my hand up.”