Michael Vaughan dropped from BBC's Ashes coverage

The broadcaster believes the former England captain's involvement in the ongoing Yorkshire racism scandal "represents a conflict of interest"

The BBC have removed Michael Vaughan from their Ashes coverage due to his involvement in the Yorkshire racism scandal.

Already pulled from his radio show with Phil Tufnell, the former England captain's voice is absent from the broadcasters' plans for this winter.

Vaughan remains part of the Fox Sports team, who will provide commentary on BT Sport's TV coverage of the five-Test series.

He has been part of the Test Match Special team since 2009 but will not appear on the mic during BBC Radio's ball-by-ball commentary in Australia.

Since revealing he was part of the allegations made by Azeem Rafiq which formed part of the independent report into institutional racism at Yorkshire, Vaughan has been heavily under the microscope.

He denies two charges levelled at him by Rafiq, which include the claim that he said "too many of you lot, we need to do something about it," towards the spinner, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Rana Naveed during a 2009 game against Nottinghamshire.

The BBC said in a statement: "While he is involved in a significant story in cricket, for editorial reasons we do not believe that it would be appropriate for Michael Vaughan to have a role in our Ashes team or wider coverage of the sport at the moment. 

"We require our contributors to talk about relevant topics and his involvement in the Yorkshire story represents a conflict of interest."

Our coverage of the Ashes is brought to you in association with Cricket 22

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