The quartet of former Yorkshire cricketers were among seven people due to appear before the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) in March, on charges levelled by the ECB in June following allegations made by their former team-mate, Azeem Rafiq.
However, it is understood that Hoggard, Bresnan and Blain have now taken the same approach that Gale took last year, informing the ECB that they have lost confidence in the process and that they will not attempt to defend themselves against the charges.
After what the ECB described as a “thorough and complex investigation”, the players were charged in accordance with Directive 3.3, which says: “No participant may conduct themselves in a manner or do any act or omission at any time which is improper or which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the ECB, the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute.”
Hoggard’s witness statement, parts of which were revealed in The Cricketer last week, will be his only contribution to the commission. At the time of writing, only Hoggard’s former England captain and fellow 2005 Ashes-winner, Michael Vaughan, and former bowling coach Richard Pyrah are due to participate with the process. Gary Ballance, who has left Yorkshire and returned to play for Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, accepted his CDC charge on five counts, including the use of racist language, but will not appear at the hearings.
In November 2022, the CDC announced the hearing would be made public which in turn led to a delay in the process due to respondents appealing the decision. However, the ECB confirmed to the Press Association on January 13 that those appeals had been dismissed by an independent Appeal Panel convened by the CDC.
It is understood that Hoggard, Bresnan and Blain cite this, along with a loss of confidence in the process following leaks to the media, as reasons for not volunteering to the inquiry.
