Burns had taken objection to Hartley’s initial tweet joking about England’s big loss in Ahmedabad
England’s team management in India have given Rory Burns a reprimand for a late-night tweet following their defeat in the third Test in Ahmedabad.
Alex Hartley, the left-arm spinner who played 32 times for England Women between 2016 and 2019, tweeted soon after the men’s team’s defeat: “Nice of the England boys to get this test match finished just before England Women play tonight” with four clapping emojis, and encouraged her followers to watch their second ODI against New Zealand on BT Sport, for whom she is working as a pundit.
Burns had not tweeted for six months but took objection with Hartley’s post, writing: “Very disappointing attitude considering all the ‘boys’ do to support the Women’s game.” His tweet was published shortly before 1am local time, and was liked by several members of the Test squad including James Anderson and Ben Stokes before its deletion around 45 minutes later.
Hartley replied to Burns, saying: “Think it’s been taken the wrong way/out of context. No offence was meant. We are all test match fans.”
Chris Silverwood, England’s head coach, said on Friday: “It’s not for me to judge on that one. That will be dealt with back in England, obviously. For me, I don’t worry about things like that. I’ve got more on my plate this end to worry about.
“That’s what I’ll be encouraging the boys to do as well: keep their head in what’s happening here.” An ECB spokesperson subsequently confirmed to ESPNcricinfo: “Team management here in India have spoken with Rory.”
Burns was dropped for England’s defeat in Ahmedabad, following scores of 33, 0, 0 and 25 in the first two Tests of the series, with Zak Crawley replacing him at the top of the order. He is on a red-ball central contract with the ECB.
Hartley is not on a central contract and has not played for England since March 2019. She won a domestic contract with Thunder as part of the new regional structure at the end of last year, and the Guardian reported that she has been spoken to by Clare Connor, the ECB’s director of women’s cricket. Hartley is due to appear on BT Sport as a summariser in their coverage of Sunday’s third ODI between England and New Zealand, after Katie George replaced her for the second ODI as scheduled.
Nat Sciver, the England allrounder, said: “I didn’t actually see the tweet but I did hear about it from some of the girls today. Obviously Alex has her opinions and that’s fair enough but maybe it wasn’t the best timing. If we had lost a Test match in two days, I would be pretty mad. Maybe not the best timing, but that’s Twitter for you.”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98