(Reuters) – The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) went “over the top” by suspending fast bowler Ollie Robinson from all international cricket for racist and sexist comments he made on Twitter in the past, UK culture minister Oliver Dowden said yesterday.
Robinson apologised “unreservedly” for Twitter posts he made from 2012-2013 that went viral on social media last week when he made his test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s.
The ECB on Sunday suspended the 27-year-old pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation into the incident.
“Ollie Robinson’s tweets were offensive and wrong,” Dowden tweeted.
“They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised.
“The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.”
England captain Joe Root said after the first drawn test against New Zealand that Robinson had some lessons to learn.
“It’s not acceptable within our game – we all know that,” Root said. “He has dealt with a huge array of emotions over this last week and he has got to learn some hard lessons.
“He addressed the dressing room, and media outlets, straight away, he fronted up to it. He showed a lot of remorse from that point onwards.”
