Racism: Giles Pleads To Give Michael Vaughan A 'Second Chance'

Cricket Image for Racism: Giles Pleads To Give Michael Vaughan A 'Second Chance' (Image Source: Google)

Ashley Giles, the director of the England men's team on Sunday suggested that former England captain Michael Vaughan should be given a chance to be rehabilitated and resume his broadcasting career after being involved in the racism controversy with former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq.

Rafiq alleged that Vaughan told him and two other Asian players that there were "too many of you lot, we need to do something about it" before a match in 2009.

The 47-year old was dropped from the BBC's coverage of the Ashes series in Australia, which starts in December in the wake of Rafiq's claim.

However, Vaughan, ex-Yorkshire has repeatedly denied the allegation, including in an interview on Saturday in which he told Rafiq he was "sorry for the hurt he has gone through".

Giles admitted there was no place for racism in cricket but when asked specifically about Vaughan, his former England captain with whom he won the 2005 Ashes, he said that refusing to give people a second chance and an opportunity to be educated was "not a healthy way "forward" for the sport.

"We all do make mistakes, and we will again, but we have to be able to tolerate and educate and rehabilitate...," he said.

"Not giving people second chances, I'm not sure that's a healthy way forward for us because it's certainly not going to bring people forward to either share their positive or negative experiences and even bring more people forward to say, 'well, I just don't know, I don't know how to react in this environment or what to say," he added.

The English cricket director also said that people need to call out racism and address it much more if they see it.

"We've got to call out and address it much more if we see it because perhaps all of us in the past -- and I'm not just talking about cricket -- have let things go. And by calling them out, I don't mean we kick chairs and tables over and start a fight. We just make it very clear that those sorts of behaviours aren't right in our dressing-rooms, in our environments," he added.

Notably, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) published a 12-point, game-wide action plan on Friday to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination in the game.