LONDON, June 4: Batting coach Graham Thorpe said England could start reviewing the social media history of players before their selection in the national team after pacer Ollie Robinson’s old sexist and racist posts surfaced this week.
The 27-year-old Robinson, who made his Test debut against New Zealand on Wednesday, was embroiled in controversy, as a string of sexist and racist messages that he posted on Twitter from 2012-13 emerged over social media.
Commenting on the issue, Thorpe said more effort would be made at inspecting a player’s social media history in future to avoid such controversy.
“It’s clearly something that might need to be looked at so that a day like yesterday doesn’t happen,” Thorpe was quoted as saying by ‘BBC’.
Robinson has since apologised for the posts he wrote while he was a teenager.
“I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago which have today become public.
“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,” Robinson said.
Thorpe added that speedster is aware of his mistake and has also apologised to the dressing room.
“In our dressing room we had to support him. It was a tough day for him yesterday. He had to say sorry to the dressing room and sorry to the world. From that perspective it was very hard for him, but he knows he’s made a mistake,” Thorpe said.
Robinson picked up four wickets in the first innings against New Zealand, giving 75 runs in 28 overs.
“For whatever he has done, it’s still not easy to go back out and perform. He showed good character and he had to be resilient. We were really pleased. His level of performance was exceptional,” said Thorpe.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is investigating Robinson’s actions. (PTI)
