Former England captain Michael Vaughan will RETURN to the BBC this summer for coverage of the Ashes

Former England captain Michael Vaughn will return to the BBC  for coverage of the men’s Ashes series and the Test match against Ireland this summer. 

The 48-year-old has not worked for the BBC since he was charged by the ECB last year for alleged racist language used against Yorkshire team-mates. 

But Vaughan, who was accused of saying ‘there’s too many of you lot, we need to have a word about that’ to Azeem Rafiq and other team-mates, had his reputation restored in March when a Cricket Discipline Commission found that the allegation was ‘not proved’. 

Following an eight-day hearing in March the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission released their findings which concluded that the case against Vaughan was unproven. 

The verdict said that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ Vaughan did not use racist language ‘at the time and in the specific circumstances alleged’. 

The former England captain was cleared of allegations of racism by the ECB earlier last week 

The former England captain was cleared of allegations of racism by the ECB earlier in March 

Azeem Rafiq was one of those Yorkshire players of Asian descent who was allegedly the subject of Vaughan’s comments in 2009 

The CDC found that five former Yorkshire players – Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Richard Pyrah and John Blain – had used racist language during their time at Headingley, although some of the charges against them were dismissed. 

Gary Ballance had already pleaded guilty to using racist language with sanctions to be delivered by the CDC before the end of next month.

Vaughan reached out to Rafiq following the verdict, but was scathing towards the ECB, whose disciplinary processes have been widely criticised by all parties involved. 

The 48-year-old has not worked in cricket since being stood down by the BBC but will return once again this summer. 

Vaughan, who captained England between 2003 and 2008, was involved in BBC’s coverage of the 2021-2022 Ashes series but returned in March 2022 before stepping away. 

Since retiring in 2009, he has worked for BBC, ITV, BT Sport and Australia Fox Sports. 

England will take on Ireland in their first Test match of the Summer on June 1 before the Ashes commences on June 16.