England newcomer Ollie Robinson, who made an impressive debut in the ongoing Test match at Lord’s is is likely to face exclusion from the second Test against New Zealand for the ‘racist and sexist' tweets he sent out when he was just 18-year old, The Telegraph reported.
The ECB has launched an investigation and Robinson’s exclusion from the team could well be extended for some part of the series against India as well, the report stated further. Also, the ECB is mulling a vetting process of profiles of new and merging players to avoid such ‘embarrassing situations in the future.
“We have a zero-tolerance stance to any form of discrimination and there are rules in place that handle conduct of this nature. We will initiate a full investigation as part of our disciplinary process,” ECB CEO Tom Harrison had said in a statement on the same night when Robinson’s tweets went viral.
The pacer has already apologised for what he called ‘thoughtless and irresponsible’ behaviour on his part irrespective of his state of mind then.
Robinson however found support in his squad as England assistant coach Graham Thorpe said that as he has accepted his mistakes and apologised for it to the dressing room and the world, the onus was on the dressing room to support him so early in his career.
“He had to say sorry to the dressing room, he had to say sorry to the world about what he did. So from that perspective it's very hard for him but he knows he made mistakes. So at the end of the day, that's why he had to make those apologies. But in our dressing room, we had to support him as well,” Thorpe said.
The second Test of the series against New Zealand is scheduled to start on June 10 at Edgbaston in Birmingham while the series against India will start on August 04 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.