Following historic tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013, Ollie Robinson has been suspended from all international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.
As a result, Robinson will not be available for selection in the second Test against New Zealand, which begins on Thursday at Edgbaston.
The ECB confirmed Robinson's suspension on Sunday, stating that he will leave the England camp immediately and return to his home county of Sussex.
Robinson apologised on Wednesday for making "racist and sexist" comments on Twitter when he was a teenager. Robinson made his Test debut at Lord's earlier that day, and news of the tweets broke shortly after he walked onto the field. It was also shortly after England and New Zealand players had stood on the side of the field in a'moment of unity' before the start of the first Test. the home players wearing T-shirts which denounced various forms of discrimination.
Robinson's debut was "exceptional" from an on-field performance point of view, but his historical actions off-field were unacceptable, England captain Joe Root said after the drawn first Test, in which Robinson took a total of seven wickets - with 4 for 75 and 3 for 26 - and scored 42 in England's first innings.
"He's contributed well with the bat, and his bowling performance was outstanding," Root said. "He's demonstrated high levels of skill, and he's clearly got the game to succeed in Test cricket."
"However, the behaviour that has occurred off the field is not acceptable in our sport." That is something we are all aware of. He went straight into the dressing room. He obviously came forward and spoke to you and other media outlets right away. From that point on, he expressed a great deal of regret. From how he's been around the group and the team, you can tell it's genuine.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing [in the tweets]." On the surface, I didn't know how to handle it. The most important thing is that Ollie is a member of this dressing room, and we had to rally behind him. We had to do everything we could to give him the chance to learn and understand that he needed to improve.
"I believe it is an excellent lesson for everyone in our game to realise that we can all do more.
We must all continue to educate ourselves, strive to improve the environment for everyone, be as inclusive as possible, and make everyone feel welcome to participate in this wonderful sport."
Root had said in the build-up to the first Test that the'moment of unity' would kick off a year of action to improve inclusivity and diversity in the sport.
On Sunday, he said, "It starts with us players at the top of the game."
"We started the week with that moment of unity, and we're working hard behind the scenes in cricket to make big changes in the game, to make it more inclusive and diverse."
"I believe the most important thing is that we continue to do everything we can to improve our sport, that we continue to learn and find new ways to improve our game."
"We can speculate on how this could have been handled better in retrospect, but the fact remains that it should not have happened in the first place. And if we keep trying to improve the game now, this shouldn't be an issue in the future. This isn't something that should happen in cricket. We must move on from this, learn from it, and do everything we can to prevent it from happening again."
Once the Tweets were made public, the ECB promised to conduct a full investigation.
"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," Robinson said after the game on Wednesday. I want to be clear that I am neither racist nor sexist.
"I deeply regret my actions and am embarrassed to have said such things. In what has been a day of action and awareness in combating discrimination in our sport, I would like to express my sincere apologies to anyone I may have offended, my teammates, and the game as a whole."
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