The England and Wales Cricket Board is investigating reports a second England player posted historical “offensive material”, a day after bowler Ollie Robinson was suspended for past racist and sexist tweets.
Wisden said it uncovered a tweet containing a racist term but had “obscured” the identity of the player, who was under 16 when it was posted.
In a statement, the ECB said the social media post had been “brought to our attention” and the governing body would make further comment “in due course”.
On Sunday, the ECB suspended 27-year-old Robinson from international cricket pending an investigation into tweets posted in 2012 and 2013.
He was dropped from the squad for the second Test against New Zealand, which begins on Thursday at Edgbaston, and left the England camp to return to his county, Sussex.
On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed comments made by the Culture Secretary that the ECB went “over the top” in suspending Robinson for decade-old posts.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan disagreed, saying the ECB “dealt with it correctly”.
“They had to act,” Vaughan said on the Tuffers and Vaughan podcast.
“I know there was pressure from powers within that they were potentially going to ask him to leave the game after day one and not participate in the remaining four days – I thought that would have been a little over the top.”
Vaughan added it was “a serious issue” that Robinson – who was making his Test debut at Lord’s when the tweets were revealed – would have to learn from.
“Do we have sympathy for Ollie Robinson? I don’t think we can have because he was an 18-year-old kid,” Vaughan said.
“Of course we all did things when we were younger – and I’m sure Phil [Tufnell] and myself will look back and think we are not that pleased with a lot things we did back in the day – and you have got to have time to come back a better person.
“We are led to believe Ollie Robinson is a better man now than he was nine years ago, but if the ECB had done nothing and allowed Robinson to play at Edgbaston on Thursday there would have been another group of people coming at the ECB for not doing anything.”
Vaughan said he “hopes” to see Robinson made available again to play Test cricket in the India series in August.
“I’d be worried if I didn’t feel people could change and be given a second chance,” he added.
“I do think Robinson will be given a second chance and play Test match cricket again.
“He is under this scrutiny. You can be rehabilitated. You can have a period in your life where you don’t necessarily have the right views and might not come out with the right comments.
“You can be educated. There is a lot that needs to be done in our game and in society.”
Vaughan says the exposure of Robinson’s historic social media posts will see the player be made an example of in future.
“It won’t surprise me if in a few weeks’ time he is a spokesperson for lots of younger players who are going through the pathway programme with the ECB, both girls and boys from the age of 15 onwards,” he said.
“He could be that spokesperson for those kind of kids, going ‘be very careful what you do because it will always come back’.”
