5 cricketers whose old social media posts created controversy

Cricketers have gained a massive fan following on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others. Many cricketers regularly post updates about their personal lives on these platforms, and they also use their accounts for brand endorsement deals.

These days, most top cricketers have their own social media teams who carefully curate the content that is posted on their accounts. However, this was not the case when social media was new to the world.

Several cricketers typed their own tweets and captions for Instagram posts. Some of them created controversies many years after the post was made.

Here's a compilation of five such posts.

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#1 Former SunRisers Hyderabad player Ishant Sharma's post with cricketers Dale Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Daren Sammy

Ishant Sharma and Daren Sammy played together for SunRisers Hyderabad in IPL 2013. During that season, Sharma posted a picture with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sammy and Dale Steyn on Instagram. He captioned the post as follows:

"Me, bhuvi, kaluu and gun sunrisers."

Apparently, Sammy did not know the real meaning of the word 'kalu', which is a derogatory term. Two years ago, Sharma's old post went viral when Sammy alleged that he was a victim of racism during his days with SRH.

Here's what Sammy said:

"This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meaning of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for SunRisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people."

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#2 Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan's old social media posts came under the scanner last year. The two England cricketers mocked the weak English-speaking skills of a few Indian cricketers who shared the dressing room with them in the IPL. Some tweets also made fun of Indian fans' English as well.

You can take a look at the screenshots of the now-deleted tweets right here:

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#3 Ollie Robinson

Another England player to feature on the list is Ollie Robinson. The fast bowler's alleged racial tweets from 2012 and 2013 led to his suspension from international cricket.

The tweets have now been deleted, but you can see screenshots of Robinson's posts here.

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#4 James Anderson

England v South Africa - Third LV= Insurance Test Match: Day Four (Image Courtesy: Getty Images)

James Anderson is another England cricketer who landed himself in trouble for an old tweet. Anderson is good friends with Stuart Broad, and a decade ago, he mocked his new haircut in an alleged 'homophobic' manner.

The veteran England pacer deleted the tweet. An investigation was conducted, but he did not receive a punishment like his teammate Ollie Robinson. You can see the deleted tweet here.

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#5 Matt Parkinson

England leg-spinner Matt Parkinson's old tweets came into the limelight when he was named in England's squad for an ODI series against India last year. Fans dug up his old abusive tweets about the Indian team.

Parkinson has now removed the tweets, but his old comments angered Indian cricket fans a lot before the series.