England Cricket Board suspends Ollie Robinson after his debut match — Know why?

The England Cricket Board (ECB), announcing the suspension, stated that Robinson would be unavailable for selection for the second Test against New Zealand starting at Edgbaston on Thursday, and he will return to his county, Sussex.

Robinson had posted racist and sexist tweets when he was a teenager (age 18 and 19). In one tweet from 2012, he had said: "My new Muslim friend is the bomb". Another tweet read: "I wonder if Asian people put smileys like this ¦) #racist", while a third had this: "Guy next to me on the train definitely has Ebola." News of the tweets emerged shortly after Robinson walked onto the field at Lord's in his Test debut earlier that day. It was also just after England and New Zealand players had stood on the side of the field shortly before the start of the first Test in a 'moment of unity' with the home players wearing T-shirts which denounced various forms of discrimination.

Now 27, Robinson issued an apology on Wednesday after admitting to posting "racist and sexist" comments on Twitter as a teenager.

Robinson made an impressive Test debut at Lord's, taking seven wickets in the match and scoring 42 runs in the first innings. The suspension, however, has put a serious question mark over his international future.

At the close of first day's play, Robinson apologised and said he was going through a difficult period in his life when he posted the racist tweets as an 18-year-old. "I want to make it clear that I'm not racist and I'm not sexist," Robinson had said.

"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."

However, his apology was not enough as the ECB suspended him after the end of the first Test while initiating a disciplinary investigation. The British government called on England's cricket authorities on Monday to reconsider the suspension.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden weighed in on the matter a day after Robinson was told by the England and Wales Cricket Board he could not play for England while there is an investigation into the racist and sexist tweets he posted as a teenager.

"Ollie Robinson's tweets were offensive and wrong," Mr Dowden said on Twitter. "They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologized. "The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson on Monday said the PM is 'supportive' of the culture secretary's view that England and Wales Cricket Board should reconsider the suspension of pacer Ollie Robinson for posting racist and sexist tweets back in 2012.

A second England cricketer is being investigated for historical "offensive" social media posts, cricket website Wisden.com reported on Monday. Wisden said it had uncovered a racist tweet but chose not to disclose the identity of the player because he was under 16 when it was posted.

England captain Joe Root called the Twitter posts By Robinson as unacceptable. "In regards to the stuff that's happened off the field, it's not acceptable within our game. We all know that. He (Robinson) addressed the dressing-room straightaway. He obviously spoke to you guys (reporters) and other media outlets straightaway, fronted up to it," the captain said post-match.

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin tweeted, "I can understand the negative sentiments towards what #OllieRobinson did years ago, but I do feel genuinely sorry for him being suspended after an impressive start to his test career. This suspension is a strong indication of what the future holds in this social media Gen."