Alex Davies banned and fined for historic racist, sexist, disablist and homophobic tweets

A Cricket Discipline Commission panel have taken action against the new Warwickshire signing for posts made during his time with Lancashire between 2011 and 2013

Alex Davies has been banned for one match and fined £1,500 for a number of offensive historic tweets sent during his spell with Lancashire.

A Cricket Discipline Commission panel found the 27-year-old sent 17 tweets between September 2011 and April 2013 that breached ECB Directives relating to failure to comply with the anti-discrimination code and bringing the game into disrepute.

The posts contained a number of racist, sexist, disablist, homophobic and other offensive remarks.

A five-match ban was imposed, though four have been suspended for a period of two years.

Should Davies commit a serious breach of cricketing regulations over that period the CDC could increase the sanction.

The panel took into account a number of mitigating factors before handing down the punishment.

“There is no excuse for any form of discrimination, regardless of when it took place, and there has to be a real consequence for such actions."

They included the time elapsed since the tweets were sent, Davies' impeccable disciplinary record, volunteer work, positive character references submitted as part of the investigation and a clear display of remorse and shame.

The references "persuasively demonstrated that a naïve and at times reckless young man has matured beyond his years, and is now regarded as both a leader and a role model by his peers in the professional game," the report noted.

The messages first came to the attention of the ECB in June 2021 when The Lancashire Telegraph reported that Lancashire CCC were looking into tweets that appeared on the account of a number of players, including Davies.

The club imposed a formal warning, with the wicketkeeper-batter subsequently deleting his entire account.

Davies, who joined Warwickshire in the off-season, has a fortnight to submit an appeal.

Mark McCafferty, Chair of Warwickshire, said: “There is no excuse for any form of discrimination, regardless of when it took place, and there has to be a real consequence for such actions.

^{Davies played for Southern Brave in The Hundred (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

“That said, people need to be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and he is extremely apologetic, recognises that what he wrote as a young man was wrong and has since worked hard to improve his attitude to life, as well as support younger players as they transition to being professionals. 

“We expect him to accept his punishment with good grace and focus now on being the best cricketer he can be, as well as working with us to ensure that the club is inclusive to all in every respect.”

Davies will likely now have to wait to make his debut for the County Championship holders.

He's due to miss the season-opener against Surrey on April 7-10, with the visit of Essex on April 21-24 now likely to be when he made his Warwickshire bow.

Historic social media activity was brought to light last summer after a series of racist and sexist tweets by Ollie Robinson in 2012 and 2013 emerged during his England Test debut against New Zealand.

The Sussex seamer was suspended for eight matches, with the ECB later pledging to stage a full review of previous online activity.