England players have accepted Ollie Robinson’s apology for racist and sexist comments he posted on social media as a teenager, fast bowler James Anderson said on Tuesday.

Robinson has been ruled out of England’s second test against New Zealand starting at Edgbaston on Thursday after historic tweets came to light last week when he made 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, told reporters that was accepted.

‘The language and things talked about are obviously not acceptable,” he added.

“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.”

Culture Minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had gone “over the top” by suspending Robinson.

Retired Jamaican fast bowler Michael Holding told Sky Sports television on Tuesday, however, that he felt the ECB had taken the right course of action.

“I think the ECB are correct to suspend him and investigate the matter,” he said. “I am not too sure they should be suspending him for a very long time.”

The ECB is also investigating a second England cricketer for historical “offensive” social media posts, cricket website Wisden.com reported on Monday.

Wisden said it had uncovered a racist tweet but chosen not to disclose the identity of the player because he was under 16 when it was posted.

“It has been brought to our attention that an England player has posted historic offensive material on their social media account,” a spokesperson for the England and Wales Cricket Board said.

“We are looking into it and will make a further comment in due course.”