Last Wednesday, 2nd June, was the day Oliver ‘Ollie’ Robinson, the Sussex seam bowler had dreamed of for a long time. It was the opening day of the First Test versus New Zealand, at Lord’s, the centre of the cricketing world, and there he was, finally receiving that long-awaited England Test cap. At the start of play, Robinson was on top of the world. At the end of the day’s play, he probably wished the nightmare had never happened. How does one descend from the zenith of utopia to the depths of despair within seven hours? Ollie Robinson will likely blame the modern wonders of social media and technology.
Ollie Robinson has been knocking on the door of the English Test team for a while now, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable Test call arrived. Since last summer, Robinson, the talented seamer, not known for genuine pace, but rather for his guile and penchant for ‘working out’ opposing batsmen, was a regular in the enlarged England bio-bubble Test squad.
Robinson has developed a reputation for scouring video footage of his upcoming opponents, deciphering weaknesses in their technique, concocting plans to deceive and trap them, thus snaring their prized wickets. His returns of 195 first-class wickets at the very economical rate of 17.29 runs since the start of 2018, is testimony to his forensic efforts of dissecting opponents.
The honours on the first day of the Test may have belonged to the New Zealand opening batsman Devon Conway, whose debut century would later evolve into the highest score by a Test debutant in England, 200 (run out, last wicket to fall). However, Ollie’s two wickets out of the three that fell on a flat Lord’s pitch were not far behind.
Returning to the pavilion at the close of play, Robinson was greeted with the news that tweets he had made between April 2012 and June 2013, when he was 20 years old, had been brought to light during the day’s play and presented to the England Cricket Board (ECB). Deemed to be of a racist and sexist nature, they included the use of the ‘N’ word, derogatory comments about women and people of Asian heritage, and suggestions that Muslims were linked with terrorism. Pandora’s box had opened and Robinson’s troubles had commenced.
Robinson unequivocally apologized, reading a prepared statement to the media, which is never the same as when one speaks extemporaneously, as he should have been encouraged to do, if he is truly remorseful.
“On the biggest day of my career so far, I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago, which have today become public,” Robinson read from the statement. “I want to make it clear that I’m not racist and I’m not sexist.
“I deeply regret my actions, and I am ashamed of making such remarks. I would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone I have offended, my teammates and the game as a whole in what has been a day of action and awareness in combatting discrimination from our sport.”
The irony of the matter was further compounded by the fact that prior to the start of the match both teams had stood in unison to denounce any form of discrimination in cricket. England had also unveiled training t-shirts for this summer bearing slogans declaring ‘cricket is a game for everyone’ on the front and denouncing racism, sexism and religious intolerance among other issues on the back.
ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison, in a statement on Wednesday last, made it clear that a “zero tolerance” attitude to such behaviour will be taken and committed to “a full investigation as part of our disciplinary process.” On Sunday, at the conclusion of the drawn Test, the ECB announced that Robinson was suspended from all international cricket pending an investigation and would immediately depart the England camp. It must be noted when he wrote the tweets, Robinson was not a teenager (the word favoured by the English media) of 13 or 14, but a young man eligible to vote in the UK general elections.
As Robinson left Lord’s after an outstanding debut performance in which he had match figures of 7 for 101, including the scalps of the first four in the Kiwi lineup, and a joint second top score of 42 in England’s first innings, he must have bitterly regretted his immature actions of years prior. Robinson is not the first person to be haunted by skeletons hanging in the vaults of social media, nor will he be the last. Comedian Kevin Hart suffered a similar fate when his lifelong dream of hosting the Academy Awards was destroyed in December 2018. As soon as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced his selection, it was hit by a tsunami of protests referring to Hart’s homophobic tweets of 2009-2011, and within two days, Hart, who initially had refused to apologise, had to do likewise, withdraw his name, and remove the goal of hosting the Oscars from his bucket list.
Here in Guyana, as the dust is still settling from the aftermath of the 2020 general elections, everyone involved in the mudslinging on social media that ensued should stop for a moment and think of all the posts they hammered out in fury or ignorance or both. They might have since been deleted, but rest assured they are out there. Someone, somewhere has copied and kept them for posterity, and when least expected they will surface again to haunt the sender. Just ask Ollie Robinson and Kevin Hart.
During a late-night sports radio talk show, the topic of discussion was the meltdown of one of America’s overpaid,spoiled sportsmen who had lashed out at his team’s owner/management and coaches via social media. A guest sports psychologist on the show explained that he often reiterated to his clients that we are all exposed to situations over time that will provoke and push us to overreact in the heat of the moment. His advice was that one should try to be aware of such triggers and when they occur wait for 24 hours to elapse “to let the emotions subside before you decide” on a course of action, rather than an instantaneous reaction which, more often than not, one will later regret. Easier said than done, but sagacious advice nonetheless. Younger generation, please note.
