Histories of the present. Dowden becomes England cricket selector, ignores BAFTA Award for Sky Cricket Black Lives Matter coverage
It probably came as a surprise to England cricket selector Chris Silverwood but Sports Minister Oliver Dowden appears to have nationalised the job and appointed himself to the role. Dowden complained that the decision by the ECB to suspend Ollie Robinson who had made a good Test debut at Lords against New Zealand, for a series of racist and sexist tweets he made when he was 18 (he’s now 27) was wrong.
Given England’s less than dynamic performance at Lords, it might well be a good idea for Robinson to play. However despite an apology, and to be fair what else could Robinson do, the ECB is the employer in this case and suspension would be normal.
Of course the ECB as they now admit should have checked and dealt with the matter before the Daily M**l did. It now needs to understand if there is more out there (in the nature of these matters there often is, played deliberately by the ‘leaker’) and even a basic precautionary absence for Robinson seems unavoidable. No doubt he’ll get advice from the players union the PCA.
In the meantime Dowden had not a word to say about the BAFTA win on Sunday for the excellent black lives matter focused Sky coverage of last year’s England v West Indies cricket series fronted up by Ebony Rainford-Brent and Michael Holding.
As Dylan noted you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing when it comes to Oliver Dowden.
Leave a Reply