Fast bowler James Anderson says England players have accepted Ollie Robinson's apology for racist and sexist comments he posted on social media as a teenager.
Robinson has been ruled out of England's second test against the Blackcaps, starting at Edgbaston on Thursday, after historic tweets came to light last week during his test debut at Lord's.
The 27-year-old fast bowler had apologised "unreservedly" in the dressing room for the 2012-13 Twitter posts and Anderson, England's all-time leading wicket-taker, says that was accepted.
"The language and things talked about are obviously not acceptable," Anderson says. "He stood up in front of the group and apologised, and you could see how sincere he was and how upset he was.
"As a group, we appreciate that he's a different person now. He has done a lot of maturing and growing since then, and he's got the full support of the team."
The ECB is also investigating a second England cricketer for historical "offensive" social media posts, cricket website Wisden.com reports.
Wisden says it uncovered a racist tweet, but chose not to disclose the identity of the player, because he was under 16 when it was posted.
"We've had to face up to some ugly truths this past week or so, and there will be challenges moving forward," says England captain Joe Root.
"The group of players we have now is very much committed to moving the game forward, to making it a better place, making it more inclusive and educating ourselves further.
"We're going to have to front up to what has happened, but ultimately, we want to move forward in a really positive way, to keep going on this journey we've started of trying to better our sport."
Reuters.
