‘The cancel culture we live in’: England cricketer makes GROVELING apology over ‘racist & sexist’ teenage tweets sent 8 years ago

England cricketer Ollie Robinson enjoyed a strong debut for his country in a test match against New Zealand on Wednesday, but was then forced to make a groveling apology after old racist and sexist tweets were dug up.

Sussex star Robinson took two wickets for 50 runs on the first day of the two-match series at Lord's in London. 

Yet rather than being allowed to revel in his performance at the game's most iconic arena, the bowler was forced to face his past.

In short, a series of tweets deemed to be racist and sexist were discovered from Robinson's teen years, and he was pushed into preparing a statement to offer his apologies.

"I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago, which have today become public," began Robinson.

"I am sorry, and I have certainly learned my lesson today."

"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," he added.

"Over the past few years, I have worked hard to turn my life around," Robinson said, dramatically.

"I have considerably matured as an adult... I would like to unreservedly apologize 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."

"I was thoughtless and irresponsible and, regardless of my state of mind at the time, my actions were inexcusable. Since that period, I have matured as a person and fully regret the tweets.

"Today should be about my efforts on the field and the pride of making my Test debut for England, but my thoughtless behavior in the past has tarnished this," he lamented.

Releasing his own statement, the ECB's CEO Tom Harrison said: "I do not have the words to express how disappointed I am that an England Men's player has chosen to write tweets of this nature, however long ago that might have been.

"Any person reading those words, particularly a woman or person of color, would take away an image of cricket and cricketers that is completely unacceptable. We are better than this."

"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," he vowed.

In his position as a pundit, former England captain Nasser Hussain, who is of Indian descent, said:  "It's just a lesson really, that if you are in and around the team first of all treat anything you do on social media as if you are doing a press conference.

"If you are going to wear T-shirts about online hate and online abuse and sexism and racism, that you can't be doing this; it's just not good enough, it's just not on," he added, in reference to items worn by the team before the match started.

"But I also think we are probably a bit of a cruel society if we don't realize that an 18-year-old does make mistakes and he has made mistakes and he's made it horribly wrong and he's fronted up.

"It does not make it right in any way; I've read the tweets, I've seen the tweets, they are horrible, they are not right and you should never say those things whether you are 18 or 28.

"It's a good lesson for anyone out there with social media; when you do this sort of stuff and you put it out whether it's after a few beers at 4am or whenever, it is out there for good. So first of all don't put it out there.

"There is no room for racism, there is no room for online hate, there is no room for being a keyboard warrior. It is not acceptable but he was an 18-year-old who has made mistakes and we've all made mistakes; it has ruined his biggest day as a professional cricketer."

The incriminating tweets in question included Robinson using the 'n' word and also writing "My new Muslim friend is the bomb #wheeyyyyy."  

In another message, he wrote "females who play video games actually tend to have more sex," while also posting about "Asian people" writing smileys with a slit-eyed sign.  

Asked why he thought the offending tweets had only just emerged now, Hussain doubled down by saying: "The bottom line is that they should not have been said and put out there.

"You can blame the ECB but Ollie has fronted up and taken full responsibility; it's not good enough just to delete tweets because it has still been out there and you've still said it and once you've said it, there is no dragging it back in.

"So if anything good can come out of this, it is that some boy or girl who is looking at that thinking 'online hate and abuse is not good enough or acceptable'.

"He has learned the harshest and the biggest lesson; I will always remember my debut fondly - I will always remember that first day but he will always remember this day for something he probably did in a drunken haze as an 18-year-old and that is very sad."

Yet elsewhere, another cricketer with an Asian background Moin Ashraf rushed to the player's defense.

"As an ex-teammate of Ollie Robinson’s in the Yorkshire set up, having roomed, shared the field and gone out for dinners and socials with him, I know full well he isn’t a racist," he wrote on Twitter.

"Yes, the remarks were inexcusable and irresponsible. He’s apologized. We should forgive, and move on," Ashraf insisted.

This was the general consensus elsewhere on the social media network, with one punter asking the ECB: "What is there to investigate?"

"He made a mistake years ago and has apologized for it. Move on."

"As far as I can see he said a few things that a lot on 18 year olds have said. This isn't a story unless there is something he said that I haven't seen," commented another.

"He was a young boy and in fairness its a bad joke/take ..everyone changes," it was also remarked.

"If he does it in the future that's different, but no one has the right to judge a dodgy tweet from someone they don't know from x number of years ago."

"If it was an issue it should have been raised and dealt with years ago," went another criticism of the overreaction.

"The fact it’s surfaced on what happens to be the most proudest day of his life says more for the cancel culture ’Woke’ world we live in today. Nobody cared about it two days ago so what’s changed yesterday?"

Not everyone bought into such a line of thought nor Robinson's groveling, however.

"Making racist remarks whatever age is disgusting," someone began. 

"Personalities/celebs/ sports people are full of remorse when racist messages are revealed but question is what were they thinking when making those remarks in the first place?"