After Ollie Robinson, another England player under the scanner over historical "offensive material"
Following the suspension of pacer Ollie Robinson over past 'racist' and 'sexist' tweets, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed they are investigating reports of a second English player, who posted historical “offensive material”.
A Wisden report claimed that it had found a tweet by a certain player, which included a racist term. The report mentioned that the identity of the player has not been revealed as he was under 16 when he posted the controversial tweet.
The ECB has released a statement over the matter and stated that they will look into it. The statement read:
“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 latest development comes even as the ECB took the decision to suspend Ollie Robinson from international cricket pending an investigation into the controversial tweets he posted back in 2012 and 2013.
Ollie Robinson made an impressive Test debut, claiming seven wickets and scoring 42 runs in the draw at Lord’s against New Zealand. But his efforts were marred by the off-field controversy.
Mixed reactions to Ollie Robinson’s suspension
UK culture minister Oliver Dowden on Monday slammed the ECB and urged the governing body to reconsider its decision to suspend Ollie Robinson. Dowden tweeted:
“Ollie Robinson’s tweets were offensive and wrong. They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologized.”
British PM Boris Johnson also backed Dowden's comments, stating that the ECB "has gone too far" by suspending Ollie Robinson . A spokesperson for Mr Johnson was quoted as saying in a BBC report:
"The PM is supportive of Oliver Dowden's comments. As Dowden set out, these were comments made more than a decade ago written by someone as a teenager and for which they've rightly apologised."
However, former England captain Michael Vaughan had a differing view and backed ECB’s action over Ollie Robinson. He said on the Tuffers and Vaughan podcast:
"They had to act. 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."
England will face New Zealand in the second Test of the two-match series in Birmingham from June 10.
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