[Cricket] England v New Zealand - 1st Test - Lords

[The Fits]

The ECB could, and should, have known about and acted on this some time ago. The fact they haven’t is a complete failure of duty of care.

How is it that someone can trawl through a players tweet history and unearth this but the ECB PR department can not?
Why is this not happening at clubs and at higher levels?
I'm not saying players should get away with it, if they are repeatedly racist etc, but surely the clubs, and especially international teams KNOW that people will be looking for this stuff?!
No place for this stuff in sport at all, but the geezer was a (messed up) teenager. Let's not lynch the boy.

Got a really horrible feeling Ollie could be used as an easy scapegoat here. Hope not, but he obviously 'has form'. Would be easy to jettison him and suggest you had 'done your bit'.

 

[GT49er]

Well it's either on the front or back page of every national newspaper, don't shoot the messenger. On the good dude at least Ollie has apologised and agreed he needs further education for these deeply unpleasent racist and sexist tweets.

Well, I never saw them. And you're obviously guilty of looking at newspapers that it is well known that NSCers aren't allowed to look at, so it looks like pitchforks on the way to you too.

Now tell me what good those headlines did, and what good you did by bringing them on to NSC. Now that you've got the reactions you probably wanted, kindly now remember this is a cricket thread. Nothing to do with racism.

 

[crodonilson]

Well, I never saw them. And you're obviously guilty of looking at newspapers that it is well known that NSCers aren't allowed to look at, so it looks like pitchforks on the way to you too.

Now tell me what good those headlines did, and what good you did by bringing them on to NSC. Now that you've got the reactions you probably wanted, kindly now remember this is a cricket thread. Nothing to do with racism.

Forgive me but are you trying to say if a cricketer or general sportsman (and we're in a sporting forum) were guilty of committing a racist act we should just sweep it under the carpet? I gu as I could have created a thread but that would surely have bought more attention to it on the forum?

The fact minutes after his England debut he felt the need to read out an obviously ore drafted statement to humbly apologise and admit the need for further education speaks volumes, but let's now allow Ollie the opportunity to be re-educated and rehabilitated and show that a racist tweet doesn't mean someone can't be turned around me and shown the right way.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Having seen the tweets I'm of the opinion that THE PRIME MINISTER has a lengthy history of worse .... and got paid for it.

 

[albionalex]

The ECB could, and should, have known about and acted on this some time ago. The fact they haven’t is a complete failure of duty of care.

Agreed. He's been on their selection radar for some time, this should have been caught well before today.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Agreed. He's been on their selection radar for some time, this should have been caught well before today.

The ECB still think The Hundred is a good idea ... they are utterly incompetent ..greedy .... idiots.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Agreed. He's been on their selection radar for some time, this should have been caught well before today.

Is the ECB covering up past offences better really the answer?
In a round about way I think it’s worked out quite well.
He clearly had unacceptable views, and behaved unacceptably, in the past - he has acknowledged that - and it has come back to haunt him, tarnishing his big day,
And now everybody should move on

 

[Braggfan]

I'm really disappointed by this whole issue. Obviously like a lot of Sussex fans who were enjoying the first day and Robinson's debut I was genuinley shocked to read about the tweets. The truth is I do think they were comments made by a immature stupid kid, BUT I do strongly believe that actions have consequences and regardless of whether he was immature or not, this issue is bigger than Ollie Robinson. Therefore I absolutely think he should dropped from the rest of the series and the ECB need to be seen to take a hard line on racism and sexism. Sadly for Robinson if his international career ends up paying the price for his old actions, then that's how it has to be.

 

[keaton]

Is the ECB covering up past offences better really the answer?
In a round about way I think it’s worked out quite well.
He clearly had unacceptable views, and behaved unacceptably, in the past - he has acknowledged that - and it has come back to haunt him, tarnishing his big day,
And now everybody should move on

Don't have to cover it up. If they'd found it when they'd called him up the first time, have a meeting with him if he says it's all the past and he's moved on, send to him some awareness course, remind him of his responsibilities etc. It would be far less of an issue

 

[Eeyore]

I'm really disappointed by this whole issue. Obviously like a lot of Sussex fans who were enjoying the first day and Robinson's debut I was genuinley shocked to read about the tweets. The truth is I do think they were comments made by a immature stupid kid, BUT I do strongly believe that actions have consequences and regardless of whether he was immature or not, this issue is bigger than Ollie Robinson. Therefore I absolutely think he should dropped from the rest of the series and the ECB need to be seen to take a hard line on racism and sexism. Sadly for Robinson if his international career ends up paying the price for his old actions, then that's how it has to be.

Banned by people who probably did far worse in their youth. I like the prime minister reference from [MENTION=587]Pevenseagull[/MENTION]

Just calls out things in cold light. I wonder how many people calling for a ban voted for Johnson.

Bum boys, anyone ?

 

[Rodney Thomas]

I'm really disappointed by this whole issue. Obviously like a lot of Sussex fans who were enjoying the first day and Robinson's debut I was genuinley shocked to read about the tweets. The truth is I do think they were comments made by a immature stupid kid, BUT I do strongly believe that actions have consequences and regardless of whether he was immature or not, this issue is bigger than Ollie Robinson. Therefore I absolutely think he should dropped from the rest of the series and the ECB need to be seen to take a hard line on racism and sexism. Sadly for Robinson if his international career ends up paying the price for his old actions, then that's how it has to be.

My one question would be, has he already paid a price for these tweets (or at least this behaviour)? He got ditched by ditched by Kent, reprimanded by multiple counties, sacked by Yorkshire. Seems to have turned his life around at Sussex. Would it be unfair to give him double punishment for something that happened when he was a teenager?

 

[Braggfan]

Banned by people who probably did far worse in their youth. I like the prime minister reference from [MENTION=587]Pevenseagull[/MENTION]

Just calls out things in cold light. I wonder how many people calling for a ban voted for Johnson.

Bum boys, anyone ?

Yeah I'm not disputing that there are people at the ECB who have done worse, but this isn't a competition. This is a new situation that needs dealing with.

The outcome is super obvious. Leaving emotion out of it, leaving the player aside and just looking at the situation, in todays game you CANNOT pick a player who has made racist and sexist comments in the past and hasn't apologised for them. There's no debate on that, there's no loopholes or what ifs, you cannot pick a player under those circumstances.

So the player gets dropped. Then what? I guess that's where the situation becomes less obvious. But lets put it into context, Australia dropped Smith and Warner for a year for cheating. People will say that Robinson was young and made a mistake, and people should get a second chance. But personally I think the message that his behaviour was unacceptable needs to be strong, the actions were worse than Smith and Warner in my opinion. And even if he was young and immature because he made the comments 8 or 9 years ago, whats he been doing sincew then. Why has it taken an England call up for him to make and apology?

I'm not against Robinson, apologising, doing a course, making ammends etc, but he does need to be sanctioned. And given his age and the stage of his career, if that means that it essentially ends his international career, it would be really sad, but ultimately he only has himself to blame for that.

 

[Braggfan]

My one question would be, has he already paid a price for these tweets (or at least this behaviour)? He got ditched by ditched by Kent, reprimanded by multiple counties, sacked by Yorkshire. Seems to have turned his life around at Sussex. Would it be unfair to give him double punishment for something that happened when he was a teenager?

He didn't get sacked by Yorkshire for the comments, that was something completely different. I don't believe he got reprimanded by Kent for it, but I could be wrong. But it begs the question, if he did get sanctioned by Kent and apologised why hasn't he mentioned that? As far as I'm aware he hasn't been given a double punishment, but I do agree that if he has already been punished, that would change things slightly.

 

[Rodney Thomas]

He didn't get sacked by Yorkshire for the comments, that was something completely different. I don't believe he got reprimanded by Kent for it, but I could be wrong. But it begs the question, if he did get sanctioned by Kent and apologised why hasn't he mentioned that? As far as I'm aware he hasn't been given a double punishment, but I do agree that if he has already been punished, that would change things slightly.

I mean he got sacked by Yorkshire and let go by Kent for his lifestyle. That would have included these tweets as surely both clubs would have been following his online behaviour as well as his social and sporting behaviour.

At what point do his past actions stop following him around? He is clearly a very different person to who he was then, should he really be punished so severely when he has already shown a capacity to change for the better?

 

[keaton]

He didn't get sacked by Yorkshire for the comments, that was something completely different. I don't believe he got reprimanded by Kent for it, but I could be wrong. But it begs the question, if he did get sanctioned by Kent and apologised why hasn't he mentioned that? As far as I'm aware he hasn't been given a double punishment, but I do agree that if he has already been punished, that would change things slightly.

Maybe the ECB should apologise for employing so many people who went on the 80s tours of South Africa first? Overton still denies his racist incident and came up with some wierd bs the other day about how he's the first person to talk to Asians in the changing room

 

[Braggfan]

Maybe the ECB should apologise for employing so many people who went on the 80s tours of South Africa first? Overton still denies his racist incident and came up with some wierd bs the other day about how he's the first person to talk to Asians in the changing room

Yeah I think the ECB should be apologising for the Apartheid tours. That is honestly long overdue. Its also a source of annoyance for me, that some of that generation now have found a way to excuse their actions by saying they were professionals doing a job, looking after their family etc. It was rubbish then, and its rubbish now. Anyone who went on those tours should be apologising for it for the rest of their lives.

Overton shouldn't play for England again

 

[crodonilson]

I mean he got sacked by Yorkshire and let go by Kent for his lifestyle. That would have included these tweets as surely both clubs would have been following his online behaviour as well as his social and sporting behaviour.

At what point do his past actions stop following him around? He is clearly a very different person to who he was then, should he really be punished so severely when he has already shown a capacity to change for the better?

If this is true it would make his actions all the more incredibly poor, surely if he was pulled up by his pervious employers he would reflect on his racist and sexist antics and delete the said tweets, or at least refer to them and apologise for them.

 

[Rodney Thomas]

If this is true it would make his actions all the more incredibly poor, surely if he was pulled up by his pervious employers he would reflect on his racist and sexist antics and delete the said tweets, or at least refer to them and apologise for them.

Perhaps that is true. I look forward to your apology and a request to the mods to delete a large proportion of your old posts:

Not wishing to start a forum war but aren't you the guy who post pictures of scantily clad women ? Some would view that as sexism and poor form.

 

[Braggfan]

I mean he got sacked by Yorkshire and let go by Kent for his lifestyle. That would have included these tweets as surely both clubs would have been following his online behaviour as well as his social and sporting behaviour.

At what point do his past actions stop following him around? He is clearly a very different person to who he was then, should he really be punished so severely when he has already shown a capacity to change for the better?

Firstly I think you've made one very big assumption there, "he got sacked by Yorkshire and let go by Kent for his lifestyle. That would have included these tweets". I haven't seen them brought to the public attention before, and those clubs didn't mention them as a reason for him being let go or sacked. In fact they were quite specfic about why he got let go/sacked and it didn't include that.

Unless somebody brings a specific incident where this has been addressed or he's apologised, the only thing that anyone can go on is that he made these comments along time ago and up until yesterday they hadn't been acknowledged.

If he has previously apologised then that's different, but if he hasn't then the question at what point do past actions stop following him around has a simple answer. He is accountable to them until he has acknowledged and apologised for them. You say he's clearly a different person, and shown a capacity to change, but the counter arugment to this would be ignoring them and only acknowedging them when you've been called out and facing potential sanctions shows the complete opposite.

Personally I do think he has matured, and he probably does regret these comments. I'm also gutted as I really wanted him to be a success, but this is a bigger issue than Robinson. It's about setting a precedent and a standard to which all players adhere to in the future. It can't be brushed under the carpet. If this is the first time it's come up then it needs to be dealt with and he needs to have the book thrown at him. We can't sit there and say one week that racism and sexism on social media is abhorrent and we need to take a stand, and then the next week find ways to let that behaviour exist.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I'm really disappointed by this whole issue. Obviously like a lot of Sussex fans who were enjoying the first day and Robinson's debut I was genuinley shocked to read about the tweets. The truth is I do think they were comments made by a immature stupid kid, BUT I do strongly believe that actions have consequences and regardless of whether he was immature or not, this issue is bigger than Ollie Robinson. Therefore I absolutely think he should dropped from the rest of the series and the ECB need to be seen to take a hard line on racism and sexism. Sadly for Robinson if his international career ends up paying the price for his old actions, then that's how it has to be.

That sounds incredibly harsh. And it sets one hell of a precedent. We are talking about some stupid tweets he sent a long time ago, for which he has apologised. I’m also not sure what purpose a ban would serve as Robinson knows he was an idiot back then and his successful efforts to change his ways began years ago.

On the plus side, at least Sussex would win a few games if he was back.