Michael Vaughan Slams The ECB For Not Doing Their 'Due Diligence' On Ollie Robinson

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for not doing their ‘due diligence’ on seamer Ollie Robinson before his Test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s on Wednesday.

Ollie Robinson’s lifelong dream of playing Test cricket for England was finally realized on Wednesday when he took the field for the series opener against New Zealand at Lord’s.

However, it did not take long before his dream turned into a nightmare as his several racist and sexist tweets from 2012 surfaced on social media.

Speaking to the BBC, Michael Vaughan said that he is staggered at the fact that the ECB did not do a thorough background check of Robinson given the fact that he was about to make his Test debut for England.

“I’m staggered that the ECB don’t do their due diligence on everything. By everything I mean- if you are going into partnership with anyone or a brand, you do your due diligence in making sure you know everything about them. They haven’t done that on Ollie Robinson. I don’t think this gets put to bed easily because what he has tweeted is out there,” Michael Vaughan said.

Vaughan added that given the number of resources that the ECB have at their disposal, they should have known everything about Robinson prior to his maiden international outing.

“A few weeks ago, surely England would have known that Ollie Robinson was in their thoughts. You have to go through everything. These days on Twitter, social media it’s all there for everyone to see. You can’t suddenly – why didn’t they delete it- that’s irrelevant. He tweeted what he had tweeted in 2012. Yes, he was 18 but I do find that staggering that the ECB with everything, the resources that they have in their operation, they don’t go through everything about every player that you pick just to make sure you have got everything covered,” he added.

Meanwhile, Robinson, who claimed a couple of wickets on the first day of his Test career, has apologized for his past misdemeanors via a press release.

“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 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,” said a dejected Ollie Robinson.

England's Ollie Robinson issues a statement of apology after racist and sexist tweets from his account resurfaced on the day he made his Test debut. pic.twitter.com/VYozhSeo30

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) June 2, 2021

Meanwhile, the ECB has made it clear that it will be doing a thorough investigation into Robinson’s sexist and racist tweets.

Also Read: ‘Disappointed’ ECB Promises To Investigate Into Ollie Robinson’s Racist And Sexist Tweets