sport news Michael Vaughan opens up on the pain of 'cancel culture' following the Azeem ... trends now
Michael Vaughan has outlined the damage wrought on him and his family after being cleared of using racist language in the direction of Azeem Rafiq and other players of Asian descent.
The former England captain had been accused by Rafiq of saying, 'there's too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that' in reference to Yorkshire County Cricket Club's players of Asian ethnicity when entering the field against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in June 2009.
He was charged, along with Yorkshire and six other former players with bringing the game into disrepute. Gary Ballance had previously accepted wrongdoing and accepted his charge.
However, the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), which heard evidence between March 1-9 after a nine-month long investigation by the ECB, cleared Vaughan of wrongdoing on the balance of probabilities. Vaughan had been the only respondent of the charges to give evidence to the Commission.
Speaking to The Telegraph, for whom he is a columnist, in the aftermath of his being cleared of the allegation, Vaughan outlined the ways in which cancel culture had damaged both his and his family members' lives over the past two or so years.
The former England captain was cleared of allegations of racism by the ECB earlier last week
Azeem Rafiq was one of those Yorkshire players of Asian descent who was allegedly the subject of Vaughan's comments in 2009
'I can absolutely tell you that it’s real (cancel culture),' he said. 'And it comes through social media. It’s so dangerous. You used to be innocent until proven guilty. You’re now guilty until proven innocent. Your life gets completely put on hold.
'Whatever the accusation thrown at you, people on social media just will not allow you to carry on with your life while it’s over your head.'
'I’m not the man to change that. I haven’t got the strength at the minute,' he added.
'I hope that in time, people realise that it’s not a fair process when accusations hit somebody’s doorstep and they’re not allowed a proper process to clear their name before they get cancelled. People’s lives are getting stopped far too soon.'
The CDC said in its verdict: 'The Panel is not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that these words were spoken by MV [Vaughan] at the time and in the
