Rashid could not remember the result of the match at Trent Bridge on June 22, 2009 but he told day two of the public Cricket Discipline Commission in London he recalled the alleged comment well.
He said: ‘As soon as the (pre-match player) huddle broke off, people were going towards their places, that is when I remember it being said.
‘I have a very clear recollection actually. I think you already know the words, “There’s too many of you lot, you need to have a word, you need to do something about it”. It is the phrase “there’s too many of you lot”.’
Rashid stated he was not offended, taking the alleged comments as ‘bad humour’.
Vaughan, who denies the claims and will defend himself today, was charged by the ECB over the allegation he made the comment to Azeem Rafiq, Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. In Rafiq’s witness statement he said Shahzad accused him of ‘blackmailing’ Rashid, which he ‘categorically’ denied.
In an interview with the ECB which was read out, Rashid’s ‘close friend’ Shahzad – who says he had no recollection of the alleged comment – said he thought Rashid was being pressurised.
It was revealed Rafiq and Rashid had been business partners after they opened a fish and chip shop together in October 2021, which closed a year later. But Rashid insisted: ‘No, no. I wasn’t pressured by Azeem.’
Vaughan’s lawyer, Christopher Stoner KC, who already asked why there were discrepancies in Rafiq’s recollection of the wording of the ‘you lot’ phrase found further inconsistencies in his statements to Yorkshire’s enquiry and what he told a parliamentary committee in 2021 regarding the term ‘elephant washer’.
Rafiq, Stoner said, had heard Rashid described as an ‘elephant washer’ at Yorkshire but had not been called it himself.
However, during the DCMS enquiry he alleged he had. ‘There is a mistake there,’ Rafiq conceded. ‘Ultimately it was checked by my wider team but I should have checked.’
Rafiq was questioned about a meeting with Vaughan in 2021 at which Vaughan had apologised. It was an ‘apology non-apology’, according to Rashid. ‘Michael headed off to Australia and his general chat around all this was relayed back to me,’ added Rashid.
‘I felt like I was being played. I got a call from colleagues of his about his general attempts to discredit me while he was in Australia. With my trust as low as it had been I didn’t want to go through any more.’
MORE : Yorkshire cricket’s Michael Vaughan set to answer Azeem Rafiq’s cricket racism charges alone
MORE : Hunt for man who ‘defecated’ in cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s garden
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