Root wants England to move forward in positive way after offensive historical tweets

AFTER a number of offensive historical tweets from England players surfaced, Joe Root said his team has faced up to some "ugly truths" in the past week.

Ollie Robinson apologised for racist and sexist tweets from 2012 and 2013 and has been suspended pending an investigation. Moreover, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has promised to take action after tweets from other players came to light.

But Root wants his team "to move forward in a really positive way".

Speaking to BBC Sport before Thursday's second and final Test against New Zealand, Root said: "We've had to face up to some ugly truths this past week or so and there will be challenges moving forward.

"But the group of players we have now is very much committed to moving the game forward, to making it a better place, making it more inclusive and educating ourselves further.

"We're going to have to front up to what has happened, but ultimately we want to move forward in a really positive way, to keep going on this journey we've started of trying to better our sport.

"We will continue to do that because that's how we all feel."

Robinson, 27, posted on social media as a teenager in 2012 and 2013 and later apologised “unreservedly” for tweets that came to light last week when he made his Test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s.

On Monday (7), ECB confirmed it was looking into a report by Wisden that a second player had posted offensive material. Wisden did not reveal the player's identity, because he was under 16 when it was posted.

Then, when more historical tweets from several England players came to light and were "questioned publicly", ECB vowed that it would take "relevant and appropriate action".

The tweets in question were made by Eoin Morgan, James Anderson and Jos Buttler.

Before the start of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's, all England playerd walked out for the anthem wearing T-shirts carrying messages of anti-discrimination.

Root confirmed England will continue to make the same stand in the second Test too.

"All we want to do as a side is keep trying to find ways of making it better, making it more inclusive, as diverse as we can, and a game for everyone," said Root.

"We've spent a long time talking about it - how we can make a change, how we can make a difference.

"As players at the top of the sport, we know that it's going to feed down from what we do. We're very aware of that and we're very keen to make change, and to take the game in a really positive direction."