On account of the Ollie Robinson controversy which happened recently during the ongoing test series vs New Zealand, let us look at five players who got into trouble due to their social media activity.
1. Ollie Robinson
This is one of the most recent cases. England cricketer Ollie Robinson was suspended for his racist and sexist comments. Which surfaced from a few tweets he made eight years ago. Robinson will remain suspended until the outcome of a disciplinary investigation. As per ECB’s zero-tolerance policy against these activities he might face disciplinary action for his mistake. Robinson took two wickets on his Test debut dismissing Tom Latham and Ross Taylor.
“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. I want to make it clear That I’m not racist and I’m not sexist” Ollie Robinson said in his defense.
2. Darren Bravo
Darren Bravo has been one of the most underrated Test batsmen for the West Indies throughout his career. He has scored over 6000 runs in international cricket including 11 hundred and 35 fifties. This incident involving Darren Bravo and Dave Cameron took place in 2016.
The Windies cricket board and their players have never shared a healthy relationship. They are often combative with each other. Darren Bravo was engaged in an ugly Twitter fight with West Indies board President Dave Cameron.
Bravo was sent home ahead of the tournament in Zimbabwe back in 2016. After which the Windies Cricket Board canceled his tour contract over a controversial tweet. Responding to Windies cricket board President Dave Cameron’s criticism for his form led to him earning only a Grade C retainer contract. Bravo tweeted:
“You have been failing 4 d last 4yrs. Y don’t u resign and FYI I’ve neva been given an A contract. Big idiot @davec51.”
Bravo breached the terms of his tour contract. WICB gave him a deadline to remove the offending tweet but failed to do so. The board dropped him due to inappropriate and unacceptable behavior. Which is contrary to his contractual obligations to the WICB.
3. Surya Kumar Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav has recently announced himself in international cricket in style by scoring a magnificent half-century on debut against England. In the last 3-4 years, he was scoring tons of runs in the domestic circuit which led him to an India call. However, even SKY had once landed in a controversy, thanks to social media.
Back in 2017, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) senior selection committee picked their 14 member-squad for the inter-state one-day limited overs league which took place in Chennai from February 25. The committee headed by Milind Rege kept the 15th member’s slot vacant for the next 24 hours, the reason being the MCA has sent a notice to its star player Yadav seeking an explanation on a retweet. The Retweet stated: “You are dropped? Looks like Bombay selectors are unaware that you are the Vice Capt of IPL champion team KKR.”
This didn’t go well with the selectors. In a letter sent to the SuryakumarYadav, MCA had warned its batsman that if he is not able to give a satisfactory reply then MCA will take strict action against him.
4. Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen, one of the stalwarts in T20 cricket. In 2010, Kevin Pietersen had to issue an apology after using abusive language in a social media post relating to his exclusion from the England team.
ECB dropped Pietersen from England’s T20I squad and ODI series against Pakistan. Pietersen immediately took to Twitter to rant his displeasure. He stated, “Done for the rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too. It’s a f*** up!!.”
This didn’t go well with Geoff Miller, who was the national selector back then. Pietersen immediately deleted the tweet and came out with an apology in which he said –
“It came out in the way that I didn’t want it to come out. I also want to apologize for the language I used. It wasn’t anything against the England selectors or England set up.”
5. Rory Burns
In March 2021, Rory Burns was dropped from the side after England suffered an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat inside two days in the pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad.
He took England’s international spinner Alex Hartley’s tweet personally. She jokingly tweeted “Nice of the England boys to get this test match finished just before England Women play tonight”.
Hartley deleted that tweet in a while. It was also liked by Burn’s teammates Jimmy Anderson and Ben Stokes at the time. Following Burns replied: “Very disappointing attitude considering all the ‘boys’ do to support the Women’s game.”