England cricketer Ollie Robinson has taken time away from the sport following controversy surrounding racist tweets he made in 2012 and 2013.
The 27-year-old sportsman’s tweets had resurfaced on social media after the lunch interval of Day 1 of the ongoing Test between England and New Zealand.
In one tweet from 2012, Robison wrote “My new Muslim friend is the bomb”. Another of his tweets read, “I wonder if Asian people put smileys like this ¦) #racist”,
A third resurfaced tweet said, “Guy next to me on the train definitely has Ebola.”
The Sussex County Cricket Club bowler also tweeted sexist remarks such as “females who play video games actually tend to have more sex & be happier with their relationships, than the girls who don’t.”
“Not going to lie a lot of girls need to learn the art of class #getsome,” he wrote in another.
After the tweets spread across social media, Robison was suspended from international cricket.
Sussex County Cricket Club has since issued a statement, saying that Robinson will miss the team’s matches against Gloucestershire and Hampshire on Friday and Saturday respectively.
Citing players’ “mental health and wellbeing” the club announced Robinson would take some time away from the sport.
“After a difficult week, Ollie has decided to take a short break from the game to spend time with his young family,” read a Sussex statement.
“We remain in close contact with Ollie from a welfare perspective and will issue further updates on his availability at the relevant times.”
“Ollie’s tweets were completely unacceptable, and their content is totally at odds with our stated ambition to inspire people from every background in our county to say, ‘I feel part of Sussex Cricket’.”
“Ollie is a very different man from the one that wrote those tweets and has clearly learned much in the intervening years.”
Robinson, who apologised for the tweets, said he was “ashamed and embarrassed.”
In other news, an Asian grandmother who hospitalised her attacker has set up a nonprofit corporation to combat anti-Asian hate crimes.
