Usman Khawaja slams MCC members over Long Room exchange

Day 5 of the Lord’s Test between England and Australia witnessed a lot of drama as the visitors clinched a 43-run win to take a 2-0 lead in the Ashes 2023 series. The biggest controversy came in the first session after Jonny Bairstow was stumped by Alex Carey. The batter went out of the crease after leaving a ball, thinking the play has ended but the ball was still in play and Carey was quick to roll the ball back to stumps, resulting in a dismissal.

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This did not go down well with England supporters at the stadium and Australian player Usman Khawaja later got involved in an argument with a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) while going through the Long Room. It got so bad that security had to intervene.

While speaking to Channel Nine after the match, Khawaja said that there was a lack of respect from the MCC members towards Australian players.

“It was really disappointing. Lord’s is one of my favourite places to come to. There’s always respect shown at Lord’s, particularly in the Members Pavilion in the Long Room, but there wasn’t today. It was very disappointing,” Khawaja said.

“If anyone asked me where the best place is to play I always say Lord’s. The crowd is great, particularly the members are great, and some of the stuff that was coming out of the members’ mouths is really disappointing and I wasn’t just going stand by and cop it. So I just talked to a few of them. A few of them throwing out some pretty big allegations and I just called them up on it and they kept going, and I was like, well, this is your membership here. So I’m just pointing them out. But it’s pretty disrespectful, to be honest. I just expect a lot better from the members.”

Cricket Australia in a statement moments after the incident claimed that Australian players were “verbally abused” in the members’ area.

“It is alleged players and staff from the Australian team were verbally abused, with some being physically contacted, as they made their way to lunch through the members area,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.

MCC also released a statement after the incident, “unreservedly” apologising to the visiting team but also adding that no member was ejected from the long room.

“The Long Room is unique in world cricket and the great privilege of players passing through the Pavilion is very special. After this morning’s play, emotions were running high, and words were unfortunately exchanged with some of the Australian team, by a small number of Members.

“We have unreservedly apologised to the Australian Team and will deal with any Member who has not maintained the standard we expect through our disciplinary processes. It was not necessary to eject anyone from the ground and I am pleased to say that there was no repeat of this as the players resumed the field for this afternoon’s session,” an MCC spokesperson said.

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