The Aussie media went in to bat for their cricketers on Monday after the controversial final day of the Ashes Test at Lord’s.
Alex Carey’s controversial stumping of England batsman Johnny Bairstow – when he left the crease thinking the ball was dead – sparked extraordinary scenes, with Australia’s players booed and then abused as they made their way through the historic Long Room at lunch.
England captain Ben Stokes questioned Australia’s “spirit of the game” but newspapers Down Under were unrepentant, with The Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Webster writing: “The first rule of MCC Fight Club is know the rules of cricket.”
He added: “I would have thought membership to the most famous club in cricket meant you understood the laws of the game.”
Three MCC members have been suspended following the scenes in the Long Room.
The Australian’s Gideon Haigh weighed in, writing that the “puce-faced MCC snobs should learn their own rules”.
Referring to the confrontation with opener Usman Khawaja at the lunch interval, he wrote: “What could be a worse look in the week of the Equity in Cricket report than dim-bulb snobs picking fights with a placid, softly-spoken Muslim player? Chaps, pull yourselves together.”
Haigh also said the actions of the members, who he lambasted as “blimps and prigs”, risked bringing to an end the tradition that allowed them to get so close to the players.
Returning to the controversial dismissal that started it all, he said it “cost” England the Test and potentially this Ashes series but concluded it was Bairstow’s “naivete rather than Alex Carey’s alertness” that was ultimately to blame.
However, the Australian Daily Telegraph said “Australia forever taints famous Ashes win”.
Phil Rothfield wrote: “The greatest moments in Australian sport are often not about winning, but great acts of sportsmanship. This Ashes win will be remembered, but not for the right reasons.”
