Despite tweets he made as a teenager, fast bowler Iain Stewart is embarrassed by them.
Several racist and sexist tweets that Ollie Robinson posted to Twitter in 2012 have earned him an “unreserved apology.”.
The fast bowler is also a member of Sussex’s club team. He is ashamed of the tweets he made when he was 18-years-old.
In the tweets, the cricketer disparaged Asians and women. The comments resurfaced just as he made his England Test debut.
In an interview with Sky Sports on Wednesday, Robertson said: “As I prepare to lead England in the biggest match of my career, I am ashamed of the racist and sexist tweets I wrote over eight years ago.
“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.
The tweets I sent were irresponsible and thoughtless, regardless of how I felt at the time. As a person, I have since matured, and I fully apologize for the tweets.”
It has been a day of action and awareness in combating discrimination from our sport, so I apologize unreservedly to anyone I may have offended, my teammates, and the entire game as a whole.”
According to Robinson, Wednesday was supposed to be about his “efforts on the field,” but “his thoughtless behavior in the past tarnished this”.
In addition to working hard to turn his life around, he had “considerably matured as an adult” during the past few years.
The statement went on: “I don’t want to let a history that happened eight years ago undermine the efforts of my colleagues and the ECB to implement meaningful measures and initiatives that I fully endorse and support.”
As I continue to educate myself, seek advice, and make use of the support network at my disposal, I will learn more about getting better in this area. I am sorry, and I certainly learned my lesson today.”
As a symbol of their collective determination to end discrimination in cricket, the England and New Zealand players participated in a “moment of unity” before the Test started.
During the match, the players and match officials stood silently in front of the pavilion, wearing anti-discrimination t-shirts.
A disciplinary investigation will be launched in response to Robinson’s historical tweets, according to England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison.
“I cannot express how disappointed I am that an England men’s player chose to post tweets of this nature, regardless of how long ago they might have been written,” he said.
The words would leave anyone reading them with a completely unacceptable image of cricket and cricketers. It isn’t good enough for us.
Any form of discrimination will not be tolerated, and our disciplinary process includes a full investigation of any such conduct.
Despite their support, Sussex criticized Robinson’s tweets from when he was a teenager.
According to a club statement, discrimination of any kind has no place in cricket or anywhere else. Our commitment is to make cricket an accessible game in Sussex, so when we were informed today of these tweets, we were deeply disappointed. Their content was completely unacceptable.
Despite his young age, Ollie made a significant mistake as a teenager, and we are pleased that he accepted responsibility for his words.”
‘Nasser Hussain, a British Indian former cricketer who captained the England team, hopes that others will be made aware of Robinson’s tweets.’
In his view, wearing T-shirts with messages of hate, sexism, racism, and online abuse is not okay; it is simply not acceptable.
“But I also think we’re being cruel to an 18-year-old if we don’t realize he makes mistakes, and he has made mistakes, and he’s made it wrong, but he has also spoken out.
Although the tweets are not right, they are also not right in any way; I have read the tweets, I have seen the tweets, and they are not right, and you shouldn’t say those things, no matter how old you are.”
