Three members of MCC were suspended for heckling Australian players in Long Room during second Test of 2023 Ashes
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The England fan banned for life for clashing with Australia’s cricketers in the Lord’s Long Room during the 2023 Ashes should have his punishment overturned, Usman Khawaja said.
Alex Carey’s infamous stumping of Jonny Bairstow shortly before lunch on the fifth day of the crucial Lord’s Test sparked chaos. Boos rang around Lord’s, and the Australian players were greeted with a chorus of “cheat, cheat, cheat” as they entered the usually sedate surrounds of the Pavilion’s Long Room for the lunch break.
Three members were promptly suspended, then banned following a full disciplinary process. One received a 30-month ban, which expires at the end of this year, and another received a ban until the end of 2027. The third was banned for life.
Usman Khawaja was pulled back by security after speaking to one the members inside the long room 😳
🗣️ "I've NEVER seen scenes like that!" pic.twitter.com/2RnjiNssfw
According to a report in the Melbourne newspaper The Age, MCC are now considering reviewing the lifetime ban. Since the incident, the club has a new CEO (Rob Lawson), chairman (Mark Nicholas), and independent disciplinary panel chair (James Counsell KC).
“As long as he’s learnt from it,” Khawaja told the Age. “I’m a big believer in second chances, as long as you learn from your mistakes.
“If these guys have learned from their mistakes and they’re never going to spray players as they’re walking off the field 30 centimetres from their face, that’s fine.
“But there needs to be some sort of remorse and understanding shown and that’s for the MCC. I’m all for second chances, I’m not a guy that holds grudges, but I do think you need to learn from your mistakes and avoid doing them again.”
The Lord’s Pavilion is unique in world cricket as players walk within spitting distance of fans – the MCC members – to reach the dressing rooms. Since this incident, players walking through the Pavilion have been granted more space.
Australia’s players, led by opening batsman Khawaja, reacted angrily at the time, and an official statement later alleged that the abuse was not just verbal, but physical. Reserve batsman Marcus Harris told a group of MCC members “you write the rules you f—— idiots”.
MCC, the proprietors of Lord’s and guardians of the laws of the game, were embarrassed by the incident, with then chief executive Guy Lavender addressing the baying Long Room at lunch. Lavender apologised “unreservedly” to the Australians, while MCC’s chairman at the time Bruce Carnegie-Brown said the scenes had “brought shame on” the club, which was founded in 1787.
At the time, Khawaja was furious, saying: “Some of the stuff that was coming out of the members’ mouths was really disappointing,” he said. “I wasn’t just going to stand by and cop it, so I just talked to a few of them.
“A few of them were throwing out some pretty big allegations, and I just called them up on it.
“It was pretty disrespectful to be honest. I was expecting a lot better from the members.”
The incident was unusual because it was off the seamer Cameron Green and controversial because Bairstow believed the over to be complete and the ball to be dead.
Jonny Bairstow is run out! ❌
A MASSIVE moment in this Test match. pic.twitter.com/CyNn0JUYSI
In the documentary, The Test, Marnus Labuschagne said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of grown, old men [behave like that],” he says. “One bloke was foaming at the mouth. A block kicked Bull [David Warner] as he was going up the stairs.”
Khawaja added: “One of the MCC members started spraying me. I said: ‘Nah, you can’t be saying that stuff’. He said ‘I can say whatever I f—— want’, that sense of entitlement. There were three of them I called out, one of them was really inappropriate.”
It proved a decisive moment in Australia’s victory at Lord’s, and their retention of the Ashes, although they failed to win any of the three remaining Tests. They have not won an Ashes series in England since 2001.
MCC membership is one of the most sought-after in sport. There is a waiting list for full membership that extends to more than 20 years, and a total of around 18,000 full members and 5,000 associate members.
MCC declined to comment on the matter when approached by Telegraph Sport.
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