Cricket Discipline Commission reprimands England's Alex Hales over controversial social media post

England batter Alex Hales was on Wednesday reprimanded by the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) over an old photo of Hales himself, in a black face during a New Year’s party in 2009. After a picture of Hales in blackface was published by The Sun last year, Hales had in November 2021 apologised via an Instagram video. “The theme was musicians and Tupac is, was and always will be my favourite musician, so I went as him. I want to apologise for all the offence this has no doubt caused. It was incredibly reckless and foolish on my behalf, so I want to apologise for that, apologise to the club for the embarrassment it would have caused them. I guess my twenties was full of mistakes like that, reckless mistakes off the field that cost me, let down family, let down team-mates, let down friends, close relationships I had during my twenties,” the 33-year-old had said. In August, Hales was charged with a breach of ECB Directive 3.3. The directive states: “No such person may conduct himself in a manner or do any act or omission which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute.’’ Hales was part of the successful England team that were crowned T20 World Cup champions in Australia recently. England beat Pakistan by five wickets in the final in Melbourne. Hales finished the tournament with 212 runs from six matches, including a match-winning knock of 86 off just 47 deliveries against India in the semi-finals.