The former England captain Michael Vaughan and five other players will discover whether they have been found to have used racist language and brought the game into disrepute when the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) publishes its findings on Friday morning.
Vaughan was charged with using racist or discriminatory language after allegedly telling a group of four Yorkshire teammates – Azeem Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan – that there were “too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that” before the start of a T20 game against Nottinghamshire in 2009. Vaughan strenuously denies the allegation.
The CDC met over four days at the International Arbitration Centre in London this month, with Vaughan the only one of the men charged to give evidence in person. The others – John Blain, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Matthew Hoggard and Richard Pyrah – did not participate in the process, so charges against them were heard in their absence. They, too, deny any wrongdoing.
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The ECB had announced the charges in June 2022, prompted by Rafiq’s allegations of racist abuse while at Yorkshire, and his appearance at the digital, culture, media and sport select committee in November 2021. The CDC was due to meet in November 2022, but the hearings were delayed until this month after the decision to hold them in public.
Yorkshire pleaded guilty to four charges, including a failure to address systemic use of racist and/or discriminatory language at the club over a prolonged period. The former Yorkshire player Gary Ballance, who has since resumed his international career with Zimbabwe, admitted using racist and or discriminatory language.
The findings will be published on the ECB website at 10.30am on Friday, with any sanctions due to be announced at a later date.
