Former Yorkshire player Rana Naved-ul-Hasan says he heard Vaughan’s racist comments

Hamza Hameed November 5, 2021

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Rana has reiterated his preparedness to provide evidence to any enquiry as required

Rana, who was the club’s overseas player at the time, was alongside Azeem Rafiq at Trent Bridge in 2009 when Vaughan is alleged to have said: “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it.”

Rana and Azeem were among four players of Asian heritage in the Yorkshire team at the time.

Vaughan, the former England captain and BBC analyst, admitted on Thursday that his name appeared in Yorkshire’s report into Azeem’s allegations of racism at the club. But he used his column in the Telegraph to refute the suggestion he had ever said anything of the sort.

“I completely and categorically deny that I ever said those words,” Vaughan said. “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 never once been accused of any remotely similar incident or disciplinary offence as a player or commentator.”

But Rana confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he heard Vaughan make the comments and has reiterated his preparedness to provide evidence to any inquiry as required.

Vaughan’s implication in the saga came 24 hours after his former team-mate Gary Ballance admitted, via a statement issued by Yorkshire, that he had been the player who had used the racial slur “P**i” in conversations with Rafiq.

Yorkshire’s chairman Roger Hutton has subsequently resigned amid the fall-out at the club, which includes Headingley’s suspension from hosting international and major matches, and the loss of a raft of sponsors, including Emerald, Nike, Tetley’s and Yorkshire Tea.

George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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