Archer insults ‘horrific’

New Zealand cricket captain Kane Williamson plans to apologise to Jofra Archer in person after the England fast bowler was subjected to ‘‘horrific’’ racial abuse by a spectator at Mt Maunganui.

Williamson spoke of his shock and sadness upon reading Archer’s social media post on Monday night in which he detailed racial insults while he was batting at Bay Oval.

As Williamson and his teammates prepared to travel to Hamilton for Friday’s second test, the captain said he would seek out Archer. ‘‘I will try, over the next few days if I can see him.’’

Williamson, who lives near Bay Oval, spoke out strongly against the spectator.

‘‘It’s certainly against everything that we as Kiwis are about, and I hope nothing like that ever happens again,’’ Williamson told Stuff yesterday.

‘‘I can only apologise on behalf of Kiwis to Jofra, not only from our team and how we look to conduct ourselves, but what we expect of Kiwis in general.’’

Williamson wasn’t aware at the time of any comments directed at Archer as he batted to try and save the test.

He was made aware Archer’s post late on Monday.

‘‘Absolutely, 100 per cent [I was shocked],’’ Williamson said.

‘‘It’s a horrific thing. In a country, and a setting where it is very much multi-cultural, it’s something we need to put to bed quickly and hope nothing like that ever happens again. It certainly won’t if there’s any influence we can have on it.’’

Archer, who was born and raised in Barbados, tweeted that one person in the crowd had subjected him to the insults.

‘‘A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my team, the crowd was been [sic] amazing this week except for that one guy, @Thebarmyarmy was good as usual also,’’ he wrote.

In a previous tweet that was subsequently deleted, Archer outlined the nature of the abuse: ‘‘Can the guy that was yelling bbc and bc from the scoreboard area today come forward and tell me what those words mean please? Because I don’t...’’

Meanwhile, NZ Cricket chief executive David White, who apologised to Archer yesterday, says the person who racially abused the Englishman could receive a life ban from attending matches in this country.

NZC and staff at the ground have been going through security footage in an effort to identify the culprit and White has vowed to take serious action. of