Rana Naved-ul-Hasan reveals hearing Michael Vaughan's racist comments at Yorkshire

Things have intensified with Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism at Yorkshire, with the club being banned from hosting international and major matches by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Rafiq, a player of Pakistan descent and former England U19 captain, had revealed of being subject to racist abuse during his time at the club, and that he had contemplated taking his own life at one point.

Vaughan, the former England captain, was alleged to have said - “There's too many of you lot, we need to do something about it" - during a match at Trent Bridge in 2009, pointing to Azeem Rafiq, Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Ajmal Shahzad.

"The night before I was due to give evidence, out of the blue, I was hit with the news that Rafiq was alleging that in 2009, when I was still a player and before a Yorkshire match against Nottinghamshire, I had said to Rafiq and two other Asian players as we walked onto the field together that there are "too many of you lot, we need to do something about it," Vaughan wrote in his Telegraph column.

"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. That the allegation came completely out of the blue and more than a decade after it was alleged to have happened made it all the more difficult to process.

Earlier, Gary Ballance, Rafiq’s teammate at Yorkshire had admitted of using the racial slur "P**i" in conversations with the former in a statement issued by Yorkshire. ECB subsequently suspended Balance from England selection indefinitely, while imposing their sanctions on Yorkshire.