Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball skipper, and wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler are under investigation by the country’s cricket board ECB after their alleged racist tweets, mocking Indians, surfaced on social media.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has promised “relevant and appropriate action”, saying each of the cases will be considered on an individual basis.
Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, And James Anderson Caught In Controversy For Posting Offensive Racist Tweets
The ECB seems to have opened Pandora’s box ever since they started a crackdown on its players for posting offensive material online. Ollie Robinson, who had a fine debut against New Zealand recently, was the first to be at the receiving end, after he was suspended indefinitely, for posting offensive tweets.
After his comments went viral, the youngster has apologized for his remarks. Since then, in a matter of few days, new names have surfaced, who had put such offensive material online. Veteran pacer James Anderson finds himself at the center of a controversy as his decade-old tweet directed towards Stuart Broad is in the news. But the controversy doesn’t stop here. Now, limited-overs skipper and his deputy — Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler are caught in the act.
The duo of Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler is allegedly under investigation from the ECB, for mocking the Indians and their elocution of English. After batsman Alex Hales struck a ton, Jos Buttler tweeted a congratulatory message for him and wrote, “much beauty batting you are on fire, sir.” On the other hand, Eoin Morgan wrote in a tweet that Jos Buttler is his favorite batsman.
Ollie Robinson And James Anderson Accepted Their Mistakes
Earlier, Ollie Robinson had accepted his mistake and apologized for his unsavory remarks.
“On the biggest day of my career so far, I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago, which have today become public,” Robinson said in a statement. “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. I would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone I have offended, my teammates and the game as a whole in what has been a day of action and awareness in combatting discrimination from our sport.”
This is in stark contrast to what the English board preaches. Earlier, they had unveiled their training kit which bears slogans like cricket is a game for everyone on the front and denouncing racism, sexism, and religious intolerance on the back.
“I don’t want something that happened eight years ago to diminish the efforts of my teammates and the ECB as they continue to build meaningful action with their comprehensive initiatives and efforts, which I fully endorse and support,” Robinson continued.
“I will continue to educate myself, look for advice and work with the support network that is available to me to learn more about getting better in this area. I am sorry, and I have certainly learned my lesson today.”
Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan both feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the former playing for the Rajasthan Royals and the latter leading the Kolkata Knight Riders.
A homophobic tweet dating back to 2010 from veteran pacer James Anderson has also emerged.
“For me, it’s 10-11 years ago, I’ve certainly changed as a person. And I think that’s the difficulty, things do change, you do make mistakes,” Anderson told the British media.
James Anderson, who will become England’s most-capped Test player if he plays in the second Test against New Zealand on Thursday, said the squad is anxious about what could come out next. England paceman James Anderson is also under the scanner for a sexist tweet made in jest for pace bowling teammate Stuart Broad in 2010.
James Anderson, 38, tweeting about teammate Stuart Broad in February 2010, wrote: “I saw Broady’s new haircut for the first time today. Not sure about it. Thought he looked like a 15 yr old lesbian!”
Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler mocked Indians by using the word ‘Sir’. A look at Jos Buttler’s tweets confirms that he did use the word ‘Sir’ and wrote broken English, which allegedly made fun of Indians.