Cricket club chief quits over ‘offensive’ social media posts
HELENA VESTY
ACRICKET club chairman has stepped down from his role amid outrage about ‘offensive’ social media posts.
Ramsbottom Cricket Club has announced that its longtime chairman and treasurer, Rod Hamer, has resigned from his posts.
The news comes after complaints were fired at the club by concerned residents over the former chairman’s ‘racist, sexist and homophobic’ tweets.
Tweets from an account named @HamerRod appeared to show the club leader lashing out at Black Lives Matter protesters, labelling them ‘morons’, ‘vandals’ and ‘terrorists’.
Replying to a post by Nigel Farage about Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, @HamerRod said: “Another black personality with no intelligence.”
The account also appears to take aim at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, saying “send the mayor back to where he came. He is a traitor to the UK” and “f**k off now for good Khan. You are the very worst of your race!”
Other tweets included attacks on efforts to celebrate Pride Month. A picture of a rainbow-coloured police vehicle posted by Ipswich Police prompted the response: “Idiotic waste of money - stop pampering these homosexuals.”
@HamerRod also commented on an image of
Labour MPs taking a knee outside Parliament amid anti-racist protests, saying: “Count the number of young females in the photo. Coincidence that there are so many appeasers in the party?”
The tweets are interspersed with interactions with the main Ramsbottom Cricket Club Twitter account.
There was backlash from the Ramsbottom community to the tweets. One man reported the tweets to the English Cricket Board on June 22, saying the posts were ‘besmirching’ the name of Ramsbottom Cricket Club.
He told the Free Press that he frequented the club but, now, no longer can after seeing the ‘offensive’ tweets dating back months.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Cricket is supposed to be a nice, gentle, community game. For the chairman of a club to be making remarks like that is besmirching the name of Ramsbottom Cricket Club and cricket in general. The sport is so diverse - many cricket players are black and Asian and we have many diverse players in Lancashire. It goes against everything that the league stands for.”
Ramsbottom Cricket Club, typically the venue for Ramsbottom Festival, itself has a social media policy in place which rules out any posts which may ‘bring the club into disrepute’.
The English Cricket Board (ECB) said it had been made aware of the complaints, saying that situations such as these are dealt with by the regional league - in this case, Lancashire Cricket.
John Murphy, Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s Clubs and Leagues Director, said: “Lancashire Cricket strongly condemns the social media posts by Ramsbottom Cricket Club Chairman and Treasurer, Rod Hamer.
“We will not tolerate racist, discriminatory or hateful behaviour of any kind and it has absolutely no place in the game of cricket in the country, let alone in the Red Rose county.
“We will work with Ramsbottom CC during their own investigation. Anyone found guilty to be racist is not welcome to Emirates Old Trafford, watch Lancashire Cricket Club play or be part of the Red Rose family.”
Ramsbottom Cricket Club announced Mr Hamer would be leaving the club.
The @HamerRod Twitter account has been deleted and Mr Hamer ‘apologised for any offence caused’ in the statement released on Saturday, which read: “Ramsbottom Cricket Club wishes to announce that our current chairman and treasurer Rod Hamer has stepped down from both positions with immediate effect. In the light of recent events, Rod has decided it is in the best interests of the club and the game in general for him to resign. He deeply regrets the tone and content of his recent posts on social media and would like to apologise for any offence caused. We would like to thank Rod for his long service and contribution to the success of Ramsbottom Cricket Club on and off the pitch over many years.”
The Free Press has approached Mr Hamer for further comment.
●● Ramsbottom Cricket Club has announced its chairman has resigned