Another current member of the England cricket team has found himself in a spot of bother after a cricket website reproduced an old racist tweet posted by him years ago. The Wisden website did not reveal the identity of the player claiming that he was under 16 when he posted that racist tweet. This comes just a day after England and Wales Cricket Board suspended Ollie Robinson from all forms of international cricket pending the outcome of an inquiry by a disciplinary committee.
According to a screenshot published by the Wisden website, the controversial tweet read, “You going out with a asian (sic).” The tweet was shared with hashtag #chinky.
Reacting to the emergence of an old racist tweet by another current member of the England team, the ECB said, “It has been brought to our attention that an England player has posted historic offensive material on their social media account. We are looking into it and will make a further comment in due course.”
The ECB had suspended Robinson from international cricket on Sunday despite the cricketer claiming seven wickets and scoring 42 crucial runs in his debut Test against New Zealand. His suspension evoked mixed reactions with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreeing with his Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden that the ECB had gone ‘over the top’ in its action against Robinson.
However, several former cricketers including Michael Vaughan agreed with the action taken by the ECB. Terming it a ‘serious issue,’ Vaughan said, “I know there was pressure from powers within that they were potentially going to ask him to leave the game after day one and not participate in the remaining four days – I thought that would have been a little over the top.”
Some of the old tweets posted by Robinson in 2012 and 2013 when he was a teenager had emerged on the day he made his England debut. The cricketer had read out a written statement apologising for his action. He had clarified that he was not racist.
