Michael Vaughan: Ashes trip delayed after ex-England captain tests positive for Covid-19

Getty Images
Will Macpherson2 December 2021

Michael Vaughan’s much-discussed Ashes trip has been delayed after he tested positive for Covid-19, but Fox Sports are still looking to bring him to Australia later in the tour.

Vaughan was due in Australia to commentate for Fox, but accusations of a racist remark levelled by Azeem Rafiq had caused issues with British broadcasters.

Vaughan was accused by Rafiq of saying to four players of Asian origin “there’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about that” before a Yorkshire match in 2009. He strongly denies the allegation.

The BBC dropped him from their coverage, while BT Sport – who are due to take Fox’s feed – are planning to use an alternative commentary team whenever he comes on air.

However they do not need to worry about that for the First Test, which begins on Wednesday, because Vaughan was unable to travel to Sydney – where Fox are calling the opener, because of Brisbane’s Covid regulations – because of a positive test.

Executive director of Fox Sports, Steve Crawley, told the Sydney Morning Herald that they were “monitoring when he could get here”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in