Moeen Ali has laid down the gauntlet to former England captain Michael Vaughan to 'step up' for multiculturalism rather than sending 'silly' tweets.
Speaking in a new documentary to be shown on Channel 4 on Tuesday night titled 'Is Cricket Racist?' Moeen gives his reaction to one of Vaughan's tweets that formed part of the case against him in the Yorkshire racism scandal involving Azeem Rafiq. In 2017 Vaughan had backed a Piers Morgan column declaring that Muslims needed to play a bigger role in finding and exposing extremist elements from within their own communities.
In response the actor and presenter Adil Ray asked Vaughan whether Moeen should be going round asking Muslims he didn't know in between Test matches if they were terrorists. Vaughan replied: "If it's going to help our kids future and environment become a safer place then YES."
When quizzed on the incident by Ray for the documentary, Moeen says: "It was very silly. Dumb really. We need people like him to step up for us. As Muslims, or any other faith really. And just be a bit smarter. I think he has also realised that times are changing and he has to change."
Vaughan apologised for the tweets during the Cricket Discipline Commission hearings, and was found not guilty of racism or using racist language towards Rafiq when they were team-mates. In the documentary Moeen also addressed the lack of representation by ethnic minorities in professional cricket teams.
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"There's players out there who are doing better than anyone else, but people won't sign them for some reason," he said. "The South Asian player has to be almost outstanding most of the time, especially as a trialist whereas sometimes a white player doesn't have to be outstanding, and he is getting signed."
Michael Vaughan has been urged to do more by Moeen Ali (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)Earlier this year, Vaughan had a charge of racism brought against him by the ECB 'not proved'. Charges were raised against Vaughan and six more former Yorkshire players, as well as the club itself, following allegations made by ex-bowler Azeem Rafiq.
The CDC found that Rafiq and team-mate Adil Rashid - who gave evidence - were "not lying" but mistaken in claiming they heard Vaughan call them 'you lot'. The panel pointed to inconsistencies in the duo's evidence.
Vaughan responded to the outcome in a statement and declared: "There are no winners in this process and there are better ways - there have to be better ways - for cricket to move forward positively and effectively.
"I have never wanted to do anything that runs contrary to genuine efforts to clean up the game of cricket. I truly hope people can understand why, on a personal level, I could not just accept, or apologise for, something which I know I did not do."
Is Cricket Racist? airs on Channel 4 at 11.05pm on Tuesday, and will be on the Channel 4 website.
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