By Admin 
International debut is the biggest opportunity of life for every cricketer. After years of hard work, when a player wears the country’s jersey for the first time, that very moment becomes his most beautiful dream. However, this did not happen with England fast bowler Ollie Robinson. Instead of being memorable, his debut became the cause of a big controversy and as soon as the match ended, he was shown the way out of the team.
Showed strength in debut match, then created ruckus
In the year 2021, Ollie Robinson made his debut in Test cricket for England in the Lord’s Test against New Zealand. In the very first match he impressed with the ball and also took wickets. Everything was going well, but then suddenly his name started trending on social media. The reason was his many years old social media posts, which people found extremely objectionable.
Old post changed the story
These posts were about 8-9 years old, when Robinson was in his youth. In those posts, wrong and insensitive things were written about some communities and women. As soon as these posts came out, there was huge anger on social media. Within no time the joy of debut turned into controversy.
ECB showed strictness
After the matter escalated, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) started investigating the matter without any delay. As soon as the test match ended, Ollie Robinson was suspended from the team. After completion of the investigation, he was banned for 8 matches and a financial fine was also imposed. This decision sparked a debate in the cricket world whether such a harsh punishment was right for the old post.
Apology, remorse and entry of politics
After the controversy, Robinson publicly apologized. He admitted that at that time he was foolish and today he does not even think like that. He said that he deeply regrets his words. British politics also got involved in this matter. The then Prime Minister and Sports Minister said that punishing a player on the basis of very old tweets could be an excessively harsh step.
Career affected
Although Ollie Robinson returned to the England team after some time, this controversy overshadowed his career. In the last few years, he got only limited opportunities and he was able to participate in only 20 test matches. He did take 76 wickets for England, but had to struggle continuously to make a permanent place in the team.