AYR Cricket Club were accused of homophobia yesterday after their Twitter account made a joke involving STV weatherman Sean Batty and cricket player Majid Haq.
Haq has posted a tweet to Sean Batty commenting on how hot the weather was in December, Ayr Cricket Club then replied: “Big lad stop hanging out the back of Batty! Just ask him... #loser”
The club then apologised to the player saying their tweet had been misinterpreted.
Haq was dropped by Cricket Scotland from the national team during the world cup in March this year after after suggesting his axing from a match against Sri Lanka was racially motivated.
Solicitor Aamer Anwar, acting for Majid Haq, called on Cricket Scotland to take action against the club.
“It’s shocking that a cricket club could post ‘homophobic abuse’ of player Majid Haq and a TV weatherman Sean Batty, yet no action appeared to be taken other than the tweet being deleted.” said Anwar. “It was only after Majid contacted myself to complain that I posted a tweet on December 20 for Ayr Cricket Club and Cricket Scotland to advise on what action they proposed to take.
“Ayr then compounded the situation further by attempting a half-hearted apology and describing the abuse as ‘misinterpreted’ rather than homophobic. That simply isn’t good enough.
“As for Cricket Scotland one wonders what if anything they propose to do. They were quick enough to suspend Majid from the World Cup Squad when he tweeted about it being ‘tough in a minority’, yet there has been total silence on this issue.”
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