Australian opener Usman Khawaja expressed his disappointment over the behaviour of some members of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for making abusive comments about the Australian players over the controversial run out of Jonny Bairstow in the 2nd innings of the high-octane Lord’s Test.
During the break on their way to the pavilion, Australian few players were abused by the members of MCC, of which Usman Khawaja and David Warner were seen having animated conversations with the members before the security officials separated them on their way to the dressing room.
Speaking on Channel Nine, Usman Khawaja was not happy with the behaviour of the members as the Lord’s Ground is one of his favourite places to play cricket at. He reckons that a few members in the long room were making some allegations in a disrespectful manner which was not received well by him so he went to talk to a few of them regarding their issue and added that he expected better conduct from the members in the iconic Lord’s ground.
“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.
“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 were 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,” Usman Khawaja said.
English wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow was dismissed bizarrely by Alex Carey at the crucial moment of the game, which sparked a wide range of controversy on and off the field, as the topic of the Spirit of Cricket has emerged once again as the fans and experts being divided by their opinion on the issue.
We Copped The Same Thing At Edgbaston – Usman Khawaja
Usman Khawaja believes that the players and fans need to respect the call made by the umpire and reckoned that the team always try to play the game in the right spirit and added that the team wanted to win the game within the rules since Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald taking over the team and also added that they team too were disappointed about the umpire decision on Ben Duckett.
“It’s is what it is. We copped the same thing at Edgbaston. Obviously, it’s a little different here. It’s disappointing, to say the least. You know, we always try to play cricket, in our best spirits, and we’ve said since Patty has taken over, since Andrew McDonald has taken over, winning is as important as how we win,” Usman Khawaja added.
Later, MCC apologized to the Australian team for the behaviour of the members and said that they will look into the matter for further investigation in the coming days.