ECB begins investigation into Jos Buttler & Eoin Morgan's alleged racist tweets
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has begun its investigation into Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan's alleged racist tweets. As reported by The Telegraph UK, the social media discourse goes back to 2017-18 and appears to be mimicking Indian people by using the word 'sir'.
Eoin Morgan, England's limited-overs captain and a World Cup-winning leader, and Jos Buttler, his vice-captain, also deliberately used broken English in some of the messages, allegedly to mock Indians.
Screenshots widely shared on social media include messages like “I always reply sir no1 else like me like you like me” from Jos Buttler and, “Sir, you play very good opening batting” from Eoin Morgan.
Although some of the messages have been deleted after the uproar, the ECB will decide on whether action needs to be taken against the players. Although the context of these messages remains unclear, they are being taken seriously because both Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan were established England players at the time of sharing the tweets.
The investigation comes in the wake of an ongoing investigation into England pacer Ollie Robinson's eight-year-old racist and sexist tweets that came out on the day of his debut against New Zealand. Veteran pacer James Anderson and another unnamed cricketer have also found themselves under the ECB's crosshairs for old posts.
ECB's statement on the investigation into Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan's tweets
An ECB spokesperson said on Tuesday that the board will take action over the emerging material on an "individual basis" in a "timely and appropriate manner". He said:
“Since we were alerted to offensive tweets last week, a number of historical social media posts by other individuals have been questioned publicly as well. There is no place for discrimination in our sport and we are committed to taking relevant and appropriate action where required. Given the concerns which have been raised are clearly now broader than a single case, the ECB Board will discuss how we deal with issues over historical social media material in a timely and appropriate manner. Each case will be considered on an individual basis, looking at all the facts. We will assess cases with the ECB Board before making further statements."
The ECB, which is already under pressure for not doing much against systematic racism, is now facing attacks from both sides. Many significant names, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have also been involved in the debates over the ECB's investigation into the Ollie Robinson case.