A cricket presenter who branded Western leaders “racist” has accused the BBC of trying to silence him over the Gaza conflict.

Qasim Sheikh, a former Scotland international who worked as a pundit for the T20 World Cup in June, apologised for “any offence” after postings emerged early in the tournament of him sharing a picture that compared world leaders including Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler.

He had also referred to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer as “genocide enablers”.

The BBC said at the time that it had spoken to Sheikh about the posts and, after issuing a statement on his behalf in which he described the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7 last year as “morally reprehensible”, he continued to work as a pundit.

In an open letter, more than 100 Jewish figures in the media and entertainment industry had condemned the BBC’s decision to stand by Sheikh during the T20 World Cup, noting how he had also written “don’t they [Palestine] have a right to defend themselves” in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.

The letter accused BBC management of a “total absence of courage, morality and understanding” and highlighted what it called a “monumental double-standard” in suspending pundit Michael Vaughan when he was the subject of an investigation before being cleared of using racist language.