(Reuters) – The England and Wales Cricket Board has vowed to take “relevant and appropriate action” after questions were raised publicly about historical tweets from several England players.
Fast bowler Ollie Robinson has been ruled out of England’s second test against New Zealand starting at Edgbaston tomorrow after historical tweets came to light last week when he made his test debut at Lord’s.
The ECB is also investigating a second England cricketer for historical “offensive” social media posts, cricket website Wisden.com reported on Monday.
Wisden said it had uncovered a racist tweet but had chosen not to disclose the identity of the player because he was under 16 when it was posted.
Since then tweets by other England players have come to light.
“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,” an ECB spokesperson was quoted as saying by the BBC yesterday.
“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.”
England players have accepted Robinson’s apology for the racist and sexist comments he posted on social media as a teenager, fast bowler James Anderson said earlier yesterday.
The 27-year-old Robinson apologised “unreservedly” in the dressing room for the 2012-13 Twitter posts and Anderson told reporters that had been accepted.
“The language and things talked about are obviously not acceptable,” he added. “He stood up in front of the group and apologised, and you could see how sincere he was and how upset he was.
“As a group, we appreciate that he’s a different person now. He has done a lot of maturing and growing since then and he’s got the full support of the team.”