Ollie Robinson has been suspended from international cricket, effective immediately.

After his racist and sexist tweets from 2012 and 2013 were unearthed, he is now going to be investigated.

It is unclear, however, who will carry out the investigation. If he did not have a contract with a county team, the investigation will be carried out by the ECB. If Robinson the opposite is true, the independent Cricket Discipline Commission will carry out the investigation.

After play on Day 1, Robinson read out a pre-prepared statement. He was “embarrassed”, “ashamed” and had “certainly learned his lesson”.

He has consequently been dropped from the squad for the next test in Edgbaston, with his short term future in the England side pending the result of the investigation.

On Monday, the Culture Secretary weighed in on the matter. Oliver Dowden has commented that the England Cricket Board has “gone over the top” in suspending Ollie Robinson.

He acknowledged that the tweets were "offensive and wrong", but countered this with the fact they were “a decade old and written by a teenager”. 

Dowden has also asked the ECB to “think again” about the suspension.

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has back the comments made by Dowden.

This leaves the ECB in a difficult situation. If they listen to the government, they risk undermining both the anti-discriminatory, “Cricket if for everyone” narrative they are pushing, and the comments of the England captain Joe Root, who said his tweets were ‘not acceptable’ speaking to Test Match Special after the end of the first test.

However, there is also contradicts sentiment from the UK Government and other professionals, including David Gower, who think the ban is too harsh, saying the following:

“The ECB should say 'let's learn from this' and make him do the equivalent of community service”.