England pacer Ollie Robinson’s Test debut has ended up making headlines for all wrong reasons, after a bunch of his old tweets between 2012 and 2014 that contained racist and sexist remarks resurfaced on the internet.
Robinson, a late teenager at that time, has “unreservedly apologised” for his derogatory comments on women, races, and religion, including usage of the N-word, racial slurs against the Asians, Islamophobic prejudices and a number of misogynistic remarks.
After his tweets started going viral on the internet, Robinson issued a statement to address the situation.
“I deeply regret my actions, and I am ashamed of making such remarks. I would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone I have offended, my teammates and the game as a whole in what has been a day of action and awareness in combatting discrimination from our sport,”
he said.
While the England & Wales Cricket Board continue to try and build a collective stance against discrimination, this controversy surrounding Robinson has asked questions of the ECB for their failure to conduct due diligence back in the time.
Although Robinson’s comments were made 7-8 years ago, ECB may still issue disciplinary actions against the 27-year old pacer. A statement from ECB chief Tom Harrison made it very clear that the ECB are not tolerant of such behaviour and they are committed to a full investigation as part of the disciplinary process.
“I do not have the words to express how disappointed I am that an England Men’s player has chosen to write tweets of this nature, however long ago that might have been,”
Harrison said.
The incident has “tarnished” an otherwise joyous day in life for Robinson who looked in impressive form on his Test debut at the Lord’s, picking up two of the only three Kiwi wickets to fall on Day 1.
“Today should be about my efforts on the field and the pride of making my Test debut for England, but my thoughtless behaviour in the past has tarnished this,”
Robinson said.
Robinson has found himself in hot water for his actions in the past as well, when he was expelled by the Yorkshire County Cricket Club in July 2014 for a series of “unprofessional actions“, only a year after he made his first team debut for the team.
Robinson in his statement, has claimed to have “matured as an adult” and that he has worked to turn his life around over the past few years.
