Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taunted England that Australia is “always winning” after the British Prime Minister hit out at the controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow.
Overnight, British PM Rishi Sunak backed the England cricket captain Ben Stokes over the scandal, suggesting the decision violated the spirit of cricket.
British cricket fans have raged after Alex Carey under-armed the ball onto Bairstow’s stumps after he believed Cameron Green’s over to be complete and the ball dead.
In a statement on Monday, Sunak’s spokesman said: “The prime minister agrees with Ben Stokes, and he said he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner Australia did.
“The game did provide an opportunity to see Ben Stokes at his best and it was an incredible Test match, and he has confidence England will bounce back at Headingley.”
But now the Australian Prime Minister has returned fire with his own statement.
“I’m proud of our men’s and women’s cricket teams, who have both won their opening two #Ashes matches against England,’’ Mr Albanese said.
“Same old Aussies – always winning!
“Australia is right behind Alyssa Healy, Pat Cummins and their teams and look forward to welcoming them home victorious ??”
In the wake of the incident, England coach Brendon McCullum threatened to skip post-Ashes beers with the Australia team.
“I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon,” he told the BBC.
“We have three Tests to land some blows and try and win the Ashes. That is where our focus will be.”
Even former Prime Minister John Howard has weighed in on the incident.
Mr Howard, who is in London to watch the cricket, suggested that there were always disputes over what constituted the spirit of the game.
“I think it means many things to many people,” he told an audience in London at a Britain-Australia Society event called The Politics of Cricket.
“I don’t know of an Ashes series that has not had some issue involving judgments versus the strict letter of the law.”
During the same event, former British PM Sir John Major criticised the conduct of fans in the Long Room at Lord’s who booed and jeered the Australians.
“Which I think, whatever had happened on the field, whatever people thought about it, was unforgivable,” Mr Major said. “And I hope it will not happen again.”
Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor said what happened was “a legitimate form of dismissal and has been as long as I’ve known the game of cricket.”
Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, he said what had occured was “fair enough”.
“I’ve seen many wicket keepers throwing the ball towards the stumps to try and claim an unsuspecting batsman’s wicket,’’ he said.
“I can remember Rod Marsh throwing the ball towards the stumps off Dennis Lillee’s bowling, Ian Healy did the same thing when a batsman was out of his crease, we’ve seen Jonny Bairstow do it in the latest Test, I’ve seen footage of England coach Brendon McCullum doing it back in 2009. This sort of stuff has been going on for a long time.
“People want to invoke the spirit of cricket, but I really don’t see it as that sort of issue. Batsmen are now batting out of their crease and wandering out of their crease trying to put bowlers off their length, which is fair enough.”
