Ollie Robinson was very remorseful and embarrassed on what he’d done: James Anderson

Earlier this month, the England cricket fraternity was rocked with controversy as the debutant seamer Ollie Robinson was suspended from all formats of international cricket. Ollie made his debut for England in the first Test of the two-match series against New Zealand. 

The 27-year-old was impressive with the ball as he picked up 7 wickets and scored 42 runs. However, his decade-old racist and sexist tweets surfaced on social media, and that caused havoc in the cricket fraternity. The same resulted in the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) taking a tough call of suspending the seamer.

England’s veteran pacer James Anderson opened up the issue saying that Robinson was very remorseful and embarrassed regarding his tweets. The veteran also added that after the incident, England is organizing workshops and meetings to educate the cricketers. 

“He [Robinson] spoke to the group and was very remorseful, embarrassed, and regretted what he’d done. We’re doing everything we can to make sure we get educated. We’ve done workshops with the Professional Cricketers’ Association, trying to educate people as we move forward as a team,” James Anderson said on BBC podcast ‘Tailenders’.

“We’ve realized as international sportsmen we’ve got a platform and we should be using it in the right way. We’ll keep learning and trying to get better as people, and that’s all we can do,” he added.

It was a real wake-up call for us as a team: James Anderson

Further in the interaction, Anderson also opened up on England’s embarrassing loss to New Zealand. The hosts lost the two-match Test series to the Blackcaps by 0-1. Speaking about the loss, Anderson reckoned that there were hardly any positives for the England side and they were not at their best. 

Speaking about his own performance, Anderson asserted that before the Test series, he didn’t play much cricket and felt rusty. “I’m trying to think of some positives to take out of the series, but there’s really not that many. There were a couple of notable performances, but we were a bit off. It was a real wake-up call for us as a team. 

“For me, personally I didn’t have enough cricket going in. I bowled 24 overs for Lancashire before it, which again is not an excuse – it’s just not ideal preparation. I felt rusty and then felt great on the last day when they needed 37 to win. Now I‘ve got three weeks off,” Anderson, who has the most Test wickets (617) among fast bowlers, added.