John Mooney in Twitter Trouble

riffmongous

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/22076625

Ireland's John Mooney apologises over Thatcher tweet


Ireland all-rounder John Mooney has apologised for a tweet in which he hoped Margaret Thatcher's death was "slow and painful".
"I would like to apologise to anyone that I upset with my tweets - I realise now that they were offensive to many and I have deleted them," he said.
Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom described the comments as "crass, insensitive and offensive".
Mooney may face disciplinary action by Cricket Ireland despite his apology.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of what he said, I really don't get how people can think there won't be any consequences for posting comments like that?

Twitter will have to put in a 'the opinions expressed above are solely my own and do not represent the views of my employers' disclaimer after tweets :pac:

Firehen

Daft to day the least. He sounded like a 14 year old kid trying too hard to be controversial.

I'd imagine some of the northern folk won't be too happy about his comments about a certain Mr.Adams either.

Plates

Don't think any good can come from us discussing this matter on this forum - probably best to move on.

riffmongous

Well it is the main Irish cricket news at the moment, it was on the front page of cricinfo

KevIRL

Sportspeople should just stay off twitter altogether. Never works out well. If required get a PR person to post for you.

Dozen Wicked Words

KevIRL wrote: »

Sportspeople should just stay off twitter altogether. Never works out well. If required get a PR person to post for you.

Not a bad idea, someone could pre-moderate his tweets (though there would be some time delay on up to the minute events!). Either that or he should just have an anonymous account that he could merrily tweet what he wants to his friends etc. and post the bland stuff on his named account. Saying that, I hate the way opinion on Twitter is becoming so neutered and I quite like reading when people in the public eye have a genuine opinion on things, but you can write things in much more subtle way and mean exactly the same thing. Lots of people on the Left and even Gerry Adams shed no tears over her death but put it much more eloquently.

Gyalist

It is like giving a machine gun to a monkey. It can be fantastic or it can be an absolute disaster too.

- Hugh Morris, Managing Director, England Cricket on the perils of players using Twitter.

LINK

riffmongous

I like the idea of premoderation or a cover-all disclaimer, sports people shouldn't be denied the right to express themselves, but they really should realise there are consequences attached too

super_furry

Banned for three games including the ODI with Pakistan. Joke of a decision.

Rascasse

He's no one to blame but himself. Politics and sport don't mix, especially on an all-island Irish team (that's sponsored by a British company).

djimi

Who issued that ban; Cricket Ireland? Seems overly harsh.

riffmongous

Seems very harsh indeed, usually when suspensions and discipline are mentioned it's just a slap on the wrist in these cases. When I thought of consequences I envisaged a fine, or at the very most a one game suspension, but 3 games??

Gyalist

I think the sanction is about right. It's not the first time that his behaviour has been less than appropriate.

AnimalRights

Plates wrote: »

Don't think any good can come from us discussing this matter on this forum - probably best to move on.

Is that not what forums are about, discussion and debate?

D3PO

super_furry wrote: »

Banned for three games including the ODI with Pakistan. Joke of a decision.

Why is it a joke ? He breached a specific clause in his CI contract. Besides which its not the first time he's received a suspension so he doesn't have a past clean record to stand behind as a defense.

The article on the LCU website also says that John accepts the decision so he clearly sees it as warranted.

Its not like he's the average club cricketer he's being paid by CI to play and with that comes an expected level of behavior.