LONDON: Pacer Ollie Robinson, who returned as England's most successful bowler with two wickets for 50 on the first day of first Test against New Zealand at Lord's, was left red-faced after his racist and misogynist tweets resurfaced on twitter forcing him to issue an apology.
"On the biggest day of my career so far, I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago, which have today become public. I want to make it clear that I'm not racist and I'm not sexist," he said in a statement.
"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," added the right-arm bowler Robinson in the statement.
"Over the past few years, I have worked hard to turn my life around. I have considerably matured as an adult," he further said.
"The work and education I have gained personally from the PCA, my county Sussex and the England Cricket Team have helped me to come to terms and gain a deep understanding of being a responsible professional cricketer."
Robinson, who was the pick of bowlers on Wednesday while others struggled, had made offensive tweets between 2012 and 2014 which targeted Blacks, Muslims, women and Asians.
"Real N***** don't let the microwave hit 0:00," he had written in one of his tweets taunting Blacks on their colour.
"My new Muslim friend is the bomb," he said in another tweet linking muslims to terrorism.
"I wonder if Asian people put smileys like this [emoticon: monolid eyes]," he said in another tweet taunting facial features of East Asians.
Besides these, there were several unpalatable tweets on women.
Ironically, his tweets surfaced on a day when the England and New Zealand teams started the match with 'a moment of unity' gesture against all forms of discrimination. IANS