Ollie Robinson tweets row: Former England batsman Michael Carberry slams UK culture minister

Former England opening batsman Michael Carberry has hit out at the UK culture minister Oliver Dowden over his comments on England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) decision of suspending pacer Ollie Robinson following his old racist and sexist tweets resurfacing.

Oliver Dowden said that ECB's punishment was 'over-the-top', even though he said that Ollie Robinson's racist and sexist tweets were offensive. He also urged the ECB to rethink their decision after the board suspended the pacer hours after the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's ended.

"They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again," Dowden had said.

However, Carberry wasn't happy with the minister's comments, who last year also had raised his voice regarding the difficulties black cricketers in the UK face whenever they have attempted to confront prejudice. Carberry said that ECB's decision was right by suspending Robinson but also questioned the board why the action was not taken earlier, since the tweets date back to 2012.

"I think Oliver Dowden needs to come and spend a day with me and live a day in my shoes, and a day in the shoes of most BAME community people, and actually speak from a place of facts and reason," Carberry told Sky Sports.

"... He has never been racially abused, he's never been racially discriminated against, so as far as I see it, it's coming from a place of no facts or no reason," Carberry said.

Carberry was also disappointed as he also questioned that why the pacer was allowed to come so far in his career after such tweets.

"I have got some other questions on that - why was this not picked up on years ago? Why has this guy been allowed to get this far in his career, and achieve what he's achieved at the highest level?

"It's a disappointment to me. Why are we not affecting our young professional cricketers better than what I am seeing right now?"