Vaughan set to be solely charged individual to attend Rafiq cricket racism listening to

Former England captain Michael Vaughan is the one charged particular person nonetheless set to seem earlier than a disciplinary listening to subsequent month in relation to racism allegations made by his ex-Yorkshire team-mate Azeem Rafiq.

The England and Wales Cricket Board introduced on Tuesday that former Yorkshire participant and bowling coach Richard Pyrah had informed officers he wouldn’t be attending, becoming a member of Andrew Gale, Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and John Blain in declining to participate.

An impartial cricket self-discipline fee panel will nonetheless hear the fees towards these 5 of their absence.

The different man charged, Gary Ballance, who made a Test hundred on his debut for his native Zimbabwe on Tuesday after a profession as an England batsman, has admitted a cost of utilizing racially discriminatory language and won’t seem, the ECB mentioned.

The ECB revealed Yorkshire had additionally admitted to 4 expenses, that means no person from the membership can be required to attend the listening to.

Rafiq, 31, first raised allegations of racism and bullying in September 2020, associated to his two spells at Yorkshire.

A report from the membership the next yr discovered that Rafiq had suffered “racial harassment and bullying” however no participant or worker confronted disciplinary motion, sparking widespread criticism.

Pakistan-born Rafiq has beforehand alleged Vaughan informed him and a bunch of different gamers of Asian ethnicity there have been “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” throughout a huddle earlier than a Yorkshire match in 2009.

England’s Adil Rashid and Pakistan’s Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have corroborated Rafiq’s account of the incident, however Vaughan, 48 has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Rafiq informed a British parliamentary committee in December 2022 that the abuse he and his household had confronted had compelled him to maneuver to Pakistan.

He has persistently known as on the CDC hearings to happen in public, with the ECB confirming that reporters will probably be permitted to view and report on a reside feed of the listening to.

Hoggard informed the BBC the ECB’s disciplinary procedures had “failed everybody”.