I was still young and pretty stupid at 18. Regardless of what the law says, it’s still a very early stage in life where you still have an awful lot to learn
The England Cricket Thread
- Thread starter robfosters
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You dont but its 2021, you could get away with it back then. His tweets were unacceptable and inexcusable.
Associate
Agreed, they were, but you missed my point. There are countless racist, bigoted lawyers, train drivers, violin players, checkout assistants and politicians. Equally unacceptable, however they are allowed latitute to learn, change and better themselves while continuing their professional lives, but a cricket player isn't?
And the sweeping statement "It's 2021" is a great cop out. It wasn't 2021 when he made those statements. Also, the amount of times we've orbited the sun doesn't have any bearing on what a sensible balanced society should look like.
I wouldn’t bother arguing with Omnomnom about it. He thinks anyone who posts a few dodgy tweets or says something out of line should be sent to the gallows.
Anyway, we could have won that today if we actually had the bottle to have a go. Going ultra defensive to grind out a draw was the mark of a weak minded team.
You don't but the Cricket governing body, just like with Football and most other major sports or organisations have to (be seen at least) set an example and cannot allow these situations to go unpunished.
There have been previous incidents like this with footballers where old tweets have been dug up and they've typically been dealt with by sending the player on a course and or a fine. This situation has been a little trickier for the ECB as it's blown up while the guy is on the pitch making his debut and on the day they done their big unity thing. They couldn't just let it pass by.
Associate
Yeah totally agree. It made for depressing listening, and a crap advert for the return of test cricket with spectators.
On the other hand, it wasn't long ago that we were criticising England for playing tests with a 20/20 mindset and shot selection. Looking at the positives, they now know they can do both, they just need to find the balance...
I liked that Jonathan Agnew gave Joe Root a hard time about it, mind!
Ahhh so youre ok with the racist tweets he put out then?
Good to know.
Edit I assume you havent seen the tweets because they are disgusting. One of which he actually calls himself a racist whilst being racist. He knew exactly what he was doing.
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Caporegime
I think you might be taking them a little too literally and in bad faith. He was a young lad being a young lad. #racist isn't a rally crying of the racist, it may have been just a throwaway remark.
What he tweeted was unacceptable but I have heard far worse from people of all colours and races and quite often when they are just taking the **** out of each other. There is nothing nasty about it and its just friends taking the ****.
This is the problem with things like Twitter, there is no context and you will interpret it based on whatever preconceived notions you have about a the person of the subject. Is it a bit of an off colour inside joke, is he a nasty racist advertising this on Twitter.
I'm fine with people learning from their mistakes and understanding that these sort of tweets are unacceptable but the guy has apologised for what are quite old tweets and considering his age he will have changed a fair bit.
Of course I’m not ok with them, i don’t know where you got that idea from.
but he was young and stupid and has made a full apology for them. That should be the end of it.
I reckon you would like a team setup to trawl through every famous persons Twitter history looking for anything remotely offensive in order to cancel them.
honest question, did you want Suarez thrown out of Liverpool for what he did?
You’ll probably answer yes, but I know full well inside you would have been hoping he wasn’t banned at all.
I have several times said that what Suarez did was completely unproven. Had he or any Liverpool player done similar on twitter id want them out yes, 100%. He at 18 should have known better and it isnt just one tweet....theres several insulting all kinds of people based on race and disabilities.
I hate the rags as much as the next person but they didnt tweet on his behalf.
I did a lot of things at 18 when I should have known better, but they didn’t deserve to ruin my career, same for Robinson. He’s a very talented guy. Ending his career over a handful of unacceptable tweets made a decade ago is just not on. Sort of thing that affects mental health and can tip someone over the edge.
Who is ending his career? He needs suspending and disciplining but no one is calling for his career to be over
A warning over future conduct is sufficient. No need for any further punishment than that.
I know I've said something similar in Football Stadium before but I'm still astounded why elite sportmen (or indeed other celebrities) don't have an agent/employer go through all their social media history and do a clean-up when they are signing professional terms, getting international callups or whatever. You know damn well there will someone in the press trawling it all looking for anything controversial, plucking out something they said as a teenager perhaps even from a bygone era when certain things might have been viewed more as banter than they are in 2021. It happens so many times, it's probably in someone's job description heh.
That said, with this particular example, we're talking tweets that are less than 10 years old not back in the noughties, I don't think you can really make any excuses based on changing attitudes over time, it looks pretty out of order even for the time it was written.
I also don't subscribe to the view that you can dismiss things written at 18 as just childish inexperience - you are an adult at 18, and in this case an adult that has grown up in an age of much greater awareness of race issues than perhaps people who grew up in the last century.
That said, with this particular example, we're talking tweets that are less than 10 years old not back in the noughties, I don't think you can really make any excuses based on changing attitudes over time, it looks pretty out of order even for the time it was written.
I also don't subscribe to the view that you can dismiss things written at 18 as just childish inexperience - you are an adult at 18, and in this case an adult that has grown up in an age of much greater awareness of race issues than perhaps people who grew up in the last century.
Finally, someone talking sense
I'm pretty sure, on more than one occasion, you've said that politics should be kept out of football @robfosters. You can't really argue that and then celebrate a politician interfering with Cricket 
I'm amazed that any sportsperson getting an international or top-level call-up doesn't immediately scrub their social media history. It should be part of the process of on-boarding a new player. You're now the face of a sport that has millions of eyes on it. Get your act together. It's not difficult.
Soldato
For the first and probably the last time I'm in agreement with Rob, the guy was 18 who doesn't make mistakes at that age. He's apologised more than once, it was 10 years ago let the guy move on. We have that nasty habit of knocking our best sportsmen down in this country.
I would argue quite strongly that the ECB and Twitter are equally responsible. ECB for not protecting their player by looking over his social media history which is widely accepted to be the done thing. If you agree with that is another topic. Twitter for not deleting these racist tweets.
Ollie has apologised for his part... ECB or Twitter?
Also @omnomnom have you ever looked at anything with a balanced view and not forming a strong opinion on anything? Still waiting to hear your thoughts in the boxing thread.
I would argue quite strongly that the ECB and Twitter are equally responsible. ECB for not protecting their player by looking over his social media history which is widely accepted to be the done thing. If you agree with that is another topic. Twitter for not deleting these racist tweets.
Ollie has apologised for his part... ECB or Twitter?
Also @omnomnom have you ever looked at anything with a balanced view and not forming a strong opinion on anything? Still waiting to hear your thoughts in the boxing thread.
Also this, can't have your cake and eat it RobI'm pretty sure, on more than one occasion, you've said that politics should be kept out of football @robfosters. You can't really argue that and then celebrate a politician interfering with Cricket