It’s perhaps still too early to tell if the Jewish and Muslim communities, here in Britain and indeed throughout the world, were brought closer by the actions of the former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq.
How refreshing it is to see the quaint concept of proof being demanded before a man’s life is ruined
Rafiq, you will remember, in November 2021 went to hear in person from Holocaust survivor Ruth Barnett, 86, about her experience of being on the receiving end in Nazi Germany of what you’d probably have to say was on balance worse than anything you could possibly experience in or around a cricket ground.
He did this, no doubt at the panicked behest of his PR advisors, when the accusations of racism he’d aimed at former England captain Michael Vaughan appeared to have blown up comically in his face after the discovery of gnashingly anti-Semitic posts he’d made on Facebook: ‘Hahaha he is a jew… probs go after my 2nds again ha… how wrong is tht?? Only jews do that sort of shit ha’, he’d typed.
What was so remarkable about these posts was the way in which they undermined the ludicrous, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, holier than thou attitude Rafiq had struck while making his accusations against Vaughan and five other former players, the most high-profile of which was that Vaughan in 2009 had referred to a group of Asian players as ‘you lot’.
Rafiq grandly told the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee he didn’t want to make it all about Vaughan, instead he was merely trying to draw attention to the important problem of institutional racism in English cricket, so that no player in future would ever have to encounter it. Racism had been so endemic, he said, that players like Vaughan had likely not even realised how offensive they were being. ‘He probably doesn’t remember it, because it doesn’t mean anything to him’, he intoned solemnly.
But as of this morning, after a drawn out affair that included a parliamentary hearing, an independent report into racism at Yorkshire Cricket Club that cost a reported £50,000, a request from the Equality and Human Rights Commission to see the report, the resignation of the club’s chairman and two board members, and many tens of thousands of pounds spent on legal advice, Vaughan has been cleared by the Cricket Discipline Commission, which has quite rightly ruled there is a lack of credible proof to substantiate the accusations made against him.
But how refreshing it is to see the quaint concept of proof being demanded before a man’s life is ruined! That Vaughan has spent the entirety of his adult life travelling the world to play and to commentate on cricket, and that during this time he very evidently made many friends of all creeds and colours, apparently counted for zero when the BBC took the decision – ‘for editorial reasons’ – to axe him in 2021 from its Test Match Special commentary team as a direct result of Rafiq’s claims.
When it appeared last summer this ban had been lifted, with Vaughan returning to commentary duties for England’s series against New Zealand, he had to stand down after a letter to BBC management from the apparently all-powerful bodies BBC BAME advisory group and 5 Live Diversity Group was leaked to the media.
In vivid and emotively overblown style, the letter described both outrage at Vaughan’s commentating on a match played at Headingley – ‘the scene of one of the most devastating racism scandals to rock the sport (so far!)’ – and the manner in which ‘Rafiq’s gut-wrenching and triggering testimony’ had ‘unearthed the rotting core of racist culture at Yorkshire Cricket Club.’
It then went on to argue not just for the suspension of famous BBC impartiality, but also apparently of habeas corpus for Vaughan:
‘We appreciate that… Vaughan is innocent until proven guilty. But surely, on a human level, it must be acknowledged how damaging, embarrassing and unsettling this is to many colleagues across BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5 Live, and the wider BBC as a whole.
The depth of feeling (both personal and professional) and outpouring of emotion toward this decision is excruciating, overwhelming and unbearable. Colleagues from all backgrounds from across the BBC have been in touch to share their disbelief and dismay, with some moved to tears because of the apparent lack of empathy, understanding and leadership over this. What support is in place for colleagues deeply affected by this, but actually still having to work with Michael Vaughan?
This really is a shocking miscalculation… For us it is about integrity. It’s about having the integrity to stand up for what is right and to call out the ruthless calculus that prioritises the one at the expense of the discomfort and trauma of the many.’
The letter finishes with words that Vaughan can probably all too easily identify with: ‘We are exhausted. We are tired. We are fed up of having the same discussions and reliving the same trauma.’
What kind of place is BBC Sport that such an absurd letter can have been not only produced, but taken sufficiently seriously to force from his job one of England’s greatest ever cricketing minds?
The recent Gary Lineker controversy – in which Lineker was allowed to keep his £1.3 million Match of the Day presenting job despite mocking BBC impartiality codes by comparing the language of the UK government to Germany in the 1930s – has revealed a great deal about Beeb groupthink and the determination of staff to push upon the British public their own political views, whether we like them or not.
But this treatment of Vaughan is surely more revealing still, and more egregious. His employer seemed very clearly to side with his accuser, first by dropping him, and then, more explicitly, by describing how adult members of staff were ‘moved to tears’ simply by the prospect of working with him. What a disgrace.
Now that he has been cleared, Vaughan would be well advised to treat the Beeb with same contempt he treated the Australian bowling attack in 2005, and to sue them relentlessly, not least for damage to his reputation and loss of earnings.
In meantime, Rafiq can put the £200,000 he was given by Yorkshire Cricket Club to good use by continuing to do his bit for the furthering Muslim-Jewish relations. ‘Does Israel have the right to exist, and to defend itself? Yes. Like I said, the two state solution seems the most sensible thing all round. I genuinely don’t have much more knowledge on the situation,’ he told the Jewish Chronicle after meeting Ruth Barnett.
Who knows, having failed to destroy Vaughan, maybe Rafiq can redeem himself by achieving world peace.
Comments