'A good lesson for anyone out there on social media' - Nasser Hussain on Ollie Robinson's controversial tweets

Day 1 of the first Test match between England and New Zealand at Lord’s saw the right-arm medium pacer Ollie Robinson making his debut for the England team. On his debut, Robinson produced a fine show with the ball and picked two wickets, those of Ross Taylor and Tom Latham.

However, Robinson has grabbed all the headlines in the cricket fraternity for all the wrong reasons. The 27-year-old’s debut has been marred with controversies as his racial and sexist tweets from 2012 have gone viral on social media. When Ollie was just 18 years old, he tweeted a lot of nasty things about Asians, Muslims, and women in general.

As the old tweets resurfaced on the microblogging site, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has promised to carry out a proper investigation on the matter. Meanwhile, former England captain Nasser Hussain believes that the controversy involving the debutant should act as a lesson for all the cricketers and the youngsters. 

Nasser asserted that people should learn to take accountability for their statements on social media. They should know that they can’t get away with anything that they say on public platforms. Speaking on Sky Sports Hussain said, “It is a lesson really that if you’re in and around the team treat anything you do on social media as if you’re doing a press conference.

“If you’re going to wear t-shirts about online hate and abuse, anti-sexism and anti-racism you just can’t be doing this. It is just not good enough and it is just not on. It is a good lesson for anyone out there with social media. When you do this sort of stuff and you put it out there whether it be after a few beers after 4 am in the morning, it is out there for good,” he added. 

Ollie Robinson has learned the harshest and biggest lesson: Nasser Hussain

Further in the interaction, Nasser reckoned that what Ollie did as an 18-year-old has ruined the most special day of his entire cricket career. The veteran added that everyone cricketer has fond memories of donning their National cricket jersey for the first time but Robinson will always remember it for all the wrong reasons.

“He is an 18-year-old lad who has made mistakes and we’ve all made mistakes and it has ruined his biggest day as a professional cricketer. If anything good can come from this it is that some young lad or girl thinking ‘online abuse is not good enough’. He has learned the harshest and biggest lesson. 

“I always remember my debut fondly, I will always remember my first day. He will always remember this day for something he did as an 18-year-old and that is very sad,” Nasser Hussain signed off.