“We are appalled that Graeme Swann equates a cricket match with the devastatingly serious crime of rape,” she said.
“It is the duty of a people in the public eye to make sure their own distorted views are kept to themselves and not shared with the general public.
“These comments lack compassion and intelligence, and he should apologise to anyone who has suffered from this heinous crime.”
Swann (left) has been one of England’s best players in the last five years but has had a poor tour, taking only seven wickets in the Test series.
A regular user of Twitter, the 34‑year-old is not the first England cricketer to find himself in trouble because of views expressed on social networking sites.
Kevin Pietersen was fined for a profane outburst on Twitter in 2010 after being left out of England’s one‑day squad for a series against Pakistan, and he was hit in the pocket again by the ECB two years later for comments made about television commentator and former England batsman Nick Knight.
Meanwhile, the frosty relationship between Michael Clarke and Shane Watson seems to have thawed with the Australia captain hailing the all‑rounder’s team spirit.
In court papers submitted in July, sacked Australia coach Mickey Arthur alleged Clarke had described Watson as a “cancer” on the team.
However, Clarke today praised Watson’s approach in the second innings of the Perth Test where he plundered 73 runs from 40 balls en route to a century. Clarke said: “He knew we were trying to score as many runs as we could before our declaration so he put the team first.”
