Picture Credit: Twitter
On July 2, Sunday, during the second Ashes Test match, the members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Australian players were involved in a heated skirmish. The incident happened inside the pavilion at Lord’s in London during the afternoon session of the final day of the Test. Australia were victorious with a margin of 43 runs against England to take a massive 2-0 lead in the Ashes Test series with three matches remaining.
Shortly after the war of words between members and Australian players occurred, an MCC spokesperson sent out a statement to detail the entire situation. They shared their unreserved apologies to the Australian cricket team, while stating that the members, who didn’t maintain the standards set by the organisation, will go through a disciplinary process.
Peter Lalor, a cricket writer, tweeted the statement from the Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord’s in London, which read, “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 were no repeat of this as the players resumed the field for this afternoon’s session,” the statement concluded.
Australia and England will now head to Leeds to take part in the third Ashes Test match, scheduled to be played from July 6 onwards, at Headingley. The hosts need to win this Test to not only stay in the series, but deny the visitors the chance to win the Ashes in the United Kingdom for the first-time in 22 years.
