Batting for Vaughan
PANESAR DEFENDS FORMER ENGLAND CAPTAIN AMID TWEETS ROW
MICHAEL VAUGHAN has been dropped by the BBC from its Ashes reporting team after being accused by Azeem Rafiq of alleged racism, which the former England captain has denied.
To his great credit, Monty Panesar, the leftarm spinner who was in and out of the England side between 2006 and 2013, has ridden on a white charger to Vaughan’s rescue.
In a national newspaper article, Panesar declared: “I have already said I absolutely do not believe Michael Vaughan is racist. He was my captain when I played for England and I only experienced positive things with him.”
According to Panesar, Vaughan “wanted the best possible England team, regardless of race or religion”.
“That’s not to say he wasn’t interested in my background – he was, but only in a positive way. He was keen to know about my Sikh beliefs and how they had shaped my values and upbringing,” he added.
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar was born on April 25, 1982, into a Sikh family in Luton, but adopted the name “Monty” to make it easier for the English to pronounce his first name.
Panesar, who has had his own ups and downs, became something of a figure of fun, especially with commentators. Henry Blofeld, for example, called him, “Monty Python.”
Rafiq claimed that Vaughan had said there were “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” to him and three other Pakistani-origin players during a match for Yorkshire in 2009.
Vaughan has denied making the remark, but has been embarrassed by a couple of tweets. In one in 2010, Vaughan said, “Not many English people live in London… I need to learn a new language.”
The former England batting star was born in Manchester on October 29, 1974. There was, of course, the devastating suicide bomb outrage at the Manchester Arena on October 22, 2017, in which 23 people were killed and 1017 were injured.
After the attack, Vaughan somehow got involved in a twitter exchange with the TV presenter Adil Ray who began by referring to the England player Moeen Ali: “Michael, what do you want Moeen to do? In between Test matches, go around asking Muslims he doesn’t know if they are a terrorist?”
Vaughan responded: “Adil, ...if it’s going help our kids future and environment become a safer place then YES…”
Vaughan now says he regrets such tweets: “I apologise deeply to anyone that I’ve offended with those tweets. Times have moved on and I regret those tweets. We all make mistakes and in my life I’ve made quite a few mistakes on Twitter. I apologise for that.”
There is mounting pressure on the BBC to reinstate him, especially from those who are not particularly sympathetic to Rafiq. Panesar may not realise this – because his intentions appear completely honourable – but he has become invaluable ammunition in the hands of those who do not like Rafiq’s campaign to rid English cricket of “institutional racism”.
To avoid further polarisation, it may not be a bad idea for the BBC to give Vaughan his job back. In any case, we should avoid a McCarthytype witchhunt based on a couple of ill-judged tweets from the past. On balance, I like to think of Britain as still a very decent society.
When the fast bowler Mohammed Shami, the only Muslim in the Indian side, was viciously trolled after India’s defeat to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup last month, there was no attempt to hunt down his detractors.