Current Events > England cricket sensation suspended for racist tweets. Boris Johnson defends him

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Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, has defended Englands Ollie Robinson after he was suspended from international cricket pending the outcome of an investigation into historic racist and sexist tweets.

The seamer took seven wickets and scored 42 runs in his first Test, which finished in a draw with New Zealand at Lords.

However, the 27-year-olds debut was overshadowed when his past social media activity emerged on day one the same day the England & Wales Cricket Board had launched an anti-discrimination campaign.

Oliver Dowden misses the point there is more at stake than Ollie Robinsons career

Captain Joe Root was among those who condemned the tweets, saying he couldnt believe them.

Dowden, on the other hand, has spoken out in support of the bowler, tweeting: Ollie Robinsons 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 apologised. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.

Robinson read out a statement after stumps on Wednesday in which he apologised profusely.

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, he said. I want to make it clear that Im not racist and Im not sexist.

I deeply regret my actions, and I am ashamed of making such remarks. I was thoughtless and irresponsible, and regardless of my state of mind at the time, my actions were inexcusable. Since that period, I have matured as a person and fully regret the tweets.

As well as making reference to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the suicide of footballer Gary Speed, Robinson also made derogatory comments about women, Asian people, and people with disabilities, using the sign-off #racist.

I would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone I have offended, Robinson added.

I dont want something that happened eight years ago to diminish the efforts of my teammates and the ECB as they continue to build meaningful action with their comprehensive initiatives and efforts, which I fully endorse and support.

Oliver Dowden misses the point there is more at stake than Ollie Robinsons career

I will continue to educate myself, look for advice and work with the support network that is available to me to learn more about getting better in this area. I am sorry, and I have certainly learned my lesson today.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has also announced his support for Robinson.

The PM is supportive of Oliver Dowdens comments, a spokesman for Mr Johnson said. As Dowden set out, these were comments made more than a decade ago written by someone as a teenager and for which theyve rightly apologised.

On Monday night it emerged that the ECB was investigating offensive posts made by a second, unnamed cricketer.

Wisden, who discovered the tweet containing a racist term, chose to obscure the identity of the alleged perpetrator who they said was 16 at the time it was posted.



Reminds me of that England vs Australia story where an Australian player went up to an English one and was like "Ntahnyahnyah, up yours ya stupid bastard! oioi!"

And the England captain was mortified, marched to the Australian lockerroom and was like ",Oh I'm terribly sorry but I'm afraid I just learned one of your players called one of my teammates a... well a bastard ..."

And the Australian captain turned around and said "RIGHT! Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard!!?"

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why are people bringing up 8 year old tweets tho?

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Giant_Aspirin posted...

why are people bringing up 8 year old tweets tho?

Cancel culture is a cancer.

Someone probably has a grudge against him. Seems really suspect with the timing.

Also, social media is a mistake.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Ollie Robinsons tweets were offensive and wrong. They are also a decade old and written by a teenager.

He was a teen, ofc he would be saying dumb shit lmao

Giant_Aspirin posted...

why are people bringing up 8 year old tweets tho?

You must be knew to the internet.

People bring up things guys did decades ago.

That Kimmy Smicht girl is getting spanked over shit she did in the 90s

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