Yorkshire County Cricket Club racism scandal: Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan says he has been on diversity courses

The Sheffield-raised Ashes winner was dragged into the racism scandal that engulfed Yorkshire County Cricket Club when former player Azeem Rafiq alleged Vaughan had said 'there are too many of you lot' in relation to a group of Asian cricketers.

Vaughan has now given a wide-ranging interview to The Daily Telegraph in which he discusses re-educating himself about his privileged position in the sport as a white male.

Vaughan, 47, retired from professional cricket in 2009 and now does analysis and media work in the game.

He has spent the past three months since the Yorkshire investigations first began on a diversity and inclusion course which also covers gender and disability as well as race.

Vaughan told The Telegraph that he initially saw himself as a good man who did not need the training, but now believes it is the 'best thing that has ever happened' to him.

He dialled into Zoom sessions from Australia while commentating on the Ashes.

Vaughan has denied he made the comment to Rafiq and his three team-mates in 2009, and said he only found out he was the senior Yorkshire player previously alluded to the night before he was due to give evidence to the Select Committee hearing at Parliament.

One of his media employers, BT Sport, suggested he attend the diversity course and he took part alongside former England rugby player Ugo Monye.

Vaughan said in the interview that he had learned lessons including that the system needed to change so that ethnic minority and female cricketers were welcomed, rather than existing structures expecting them to adapt to fit into the culture.

He accepted that he had never had to deal with situations where assumptions had been made about his job or role based on the colour of his skin, and admits he was 'defensive' about suggestions he had benefitted from privilege in his career alongside his own hard work.

After some unflattering Tweets sent in 2010 resurfaced, he has now pledged to devote his account purely to views about cricket.

Read the full Telegraph interview here