England’s limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan has dismissed racism claims against him, saying that his old tweets where he allegedly mocked Indians by using the word ‘sir’ was a sign of admiration and respect.
Earlier this month, ECB suspended fast bowler Ollie Robinson for his racist and sexist tweets as a teenager. Subsequently, old tweets of Morgan and wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler also resurfaced, which seems to be written in a way that mocks the English language used by Indian fans.
In one such post, Morgan tags Buttler saying ‘Sir you’re my favourite batsman’. The use of ‘sir’ was perceived by some as poking fun at the Indian fans.
“I don’t really reflect on it a lot," Morgan was quoted as saying by Mirror.co.uk. “I find it, if I call somebody sir on social media, or anywhere around the world, it’s a sign of admiration and respect."
Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was also part of one conversation. Notably, both McCullum and Morgan are part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
"We don't know enough about it to comment at this time. Let's wait for the process to be completed to get all the facts before we jump to any conclusions. Just to reiterate, the Knight Riders organisation has 'zero tolerance' for any sort of discrimination," KKR CEO Venky Mysore had said while speaking to Cricbuzz earlier this month.
While ECB has suspended Robinson pending an investigation into his offensive posts dating back to 2012-13, the governing body has ordered a probe into Morgan and Buttler’s tweets.
"Since we were alerted to offensive tweets last week, a number of historical social media posts by other individuals have been questioned publicly as well. There is no place for discrimination in our sport, and we are committed to taking relevant and appropriate action where required. Given the concerns which have been raised are clearly now broader than a single case, the ECB will discuss how we deal with issues over historical social media material in a timely and appropriate manner. Each case will be considered on an individual basis, looking at all the facts. We will assess cases with the ECB before making further statements," an ECB spokesperson had told Cricbuzz.
