England pacer Ollie Robinson has made a great start to his Test career, claiming two wickets against New Zealand on the first day of the first Test. The right-arm pace bowler used the swing on the Lord’s surface and constantly troubled the New Zealand batsmen as well. However, he made headlines for the wrong reason as well soon after he received his Test cap and it is because of his old “racist and sexist” tweets that resurfaced on social media.
Robinson made some unpleasant remarks way back in 2012, 2013 when he was a teenager. Seeing a lot of backlash on the posts, he has issued an apology after the conclusion of the day’s play as well. However, Robinson apologized to everyone he offended. While the 27-year-old pace bowler has shared his regret, he can face repercussions for his remarks as well.
While speaking on the episode, ECB chief executive officer Tom Harrison has said that the media that an investigation will be done regarding the matter despite the tweets being old. He said that he was truly disappointed with the remarks Ollie Robinson made earlier and mentioned that the cricket body has a “zero-tolerance” policy towards this as well.
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In his apology, Ollie Robinson said, “Old tweets have today become public. I deeply regret my actions, and I am ashamed of making such remarks. I was thoughtless and irresponsible, and regardless of my state of mind at the time, my actions were inexcusable. Since that period, I have matured as a person and fully regret the tweets.”
Statement from Ollie Robinson about the old tweets, he has apologized to everyone. pic.twitter.com/XWzOKvrRj7
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 2, 2021
“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. Any person reading those words, particularly a woman or person of colour, would take away an image of cricket and cricketers that is completely unacceptable,” Tom Harrison said.
“We are better than this. We have a zero-tolerance stance to any form of discrimination and there are rules in place that handle conduct of this nature. We will initiate a full investigation as part of our disciplinary process,” he further added.
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Now that Ollie Robinson has expressed his regret on social media, it will be interesting to see what call ECB to take over the matter. Currently, New Zealand has been playing a two-match Test series against England. While the Kiwis will play the inaugural World Test Championship final against India, England will take on India in five Tests after that as well.
Here are Robinson’s tweets:
https://twitter.com/gooturducken/status/1400063489599840262?s=20