“It Was Really Disappointing”: Usman Khawaja Breaks Silence On Lord’s Long Room Incident
New Delhi: The red-ball Ashes battle between England and Australia is taking place in England these days where for the first time since 2016-17, the hosts are aiming to reclaim the Ashes. But their bid to get the urn back has suffered a big blow after they suffered close defeats in the opening two Tests which took place at Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively.
After getting the better of England by 2 wickets in the first Test, reigning World Test Championship winners Australia beat England by 43 in the second Test which was played at the Lord’s on Sunday (July 2) to take a 2-0 lead in five match series.
The second Test had fair share of controversies as well and during the final day play a bizarre incident took place at the iconic Lord’s when a few MCC members abused two Australia players.
Few MCC members abused the players when the team was on the way back to the dressing room after the first session of the final day. Australian star Usman Khwaja who was one of the abused players finally opened up about the incident, was seen getting into a heated discussion with a MCC member, who had made his nasty remark on Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal.
He finally opened up about the incident and expressed his disappointment. He said there is always respect shown at Lord’s, but that was not the case today.
“It was really disappointing. Lord’s is one of my favourite places to come. 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”, Khawaja added.
MCC Apologises To The Australian Team
After Australia requested MCC to investigate the matter, MCC issued an apologetic statement to the Australian team where they revealed that the three members are suspended till further investigation and that they will not enter the venue till the end of the inquiry.
“They will not be permitted back to Lord’s whilst the investigation takes place and were informed of this by MCC Chief Executive, Guy Lavender, this evening,” the statement said.
“We maintain that the behaviour of a small number of members was completely unacceptable and whilst there was no suggestion by Pat Cummins in the post-match press conference that there was any physical altercation, it remains wholly unacceptable to behave in such a way which goes against the values of the club”, he added.