ECB confirms ‘appropriate actions’ to be taken on individual basis after more historical tweets emerge

On the first day of the Lord’s Test, the English players walked wearing anti-racism and homophobia t-shirts. Just minutes after that, all hell broke loose on social media, when Ollie Robinson was found guilty of several historical offensive tweets on Twitter, which led to the bowler and the board issuing apology. 

Following the conclusion of the Test, the all-rounder has been suspended indefinitely till a verdict has been reached. However, in the aftermath of the incident, several tweets of high-profile English white-ball cricketers - Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan alongside James Anderson have resurfaced. While it has certainly caught the attention of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who confirmed that they would take appropriate actions in the near future. 

“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. There is no place for discrimination in our sport, and we are committed to taking relevant and appropriate action where required,” ECB confirmed in a statement. 

“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. We will assess cases with the ECB Board before making further statements.”

Meanwhile, pacer James Anderson, whose tweet on fellow pacer Stuart Broad went viral, stated that the Ollie Robinson saga has already heightened the feelings of anxiety in the squad. Reportedly, the two English players - Rory Burns and Dom Bess - have apparently deleted their social media accounts in the aftermath of the incident. 

“For me it’s 10-11 years ago, I’ve certainly changed as a person. And I think that’s the difficulty, things do change, you do make mistakes. I guess we do feel anxious,” he said, reported The Guardian. 

“It is a difficult time. As players we are trying to learn from this. We realise it’s important to try to get educated around these issues, which we continue to do with the ECB and the PCA [Professional Cricketers’ Association]. We had already been doing workshops before this series, basically to improve ourselves as people,” Anderson stated. 

Anderson also backed the Sussex all-rounder to mature and learn from the mistakes, stating that he the full support of the team after he makes a comeback. 

“You could see how sincere he was and how upset he was when he stood up in front of the group and apologised. As a group we appreciate he’s a different person now. He’s done a lot of maturing and growing since then and he’s got the full support of the team.”