Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has labelled the Lord’s members “yahoos”, saying he was not surprised by the treatment dished out to Usman Khawaja and his teammates.
Khawaja was left unimpressed after being singled out by a number of Marylebone Cricket Club members, who have since been suspended, during day five of the second Test at Lord’s.
Despite the venue being often called “The Home of Cricket” and known for its classy crowd, Chappell suggested the members in the Long Room have form.
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“Anybody who’s surprised by the behaviour of the Lord’s members haven’t followed humanity much of late,” he told 2GB’s Wide World of Sports Radio.
“If there’s a certain percentage of yahoos around then there’s a certain percentage of yahoos at Lord’s.
“Have they forgotten this is the same mob who had a fight during my brother’s centenary Test at Lord’s?
“There’s a lot of rubbish spoken about Lord’s and I’ve heard a lot of it lately.”
Chappell said debates about the spirit of cricket in the aftermath of the second Test were “rubbish” and offered little sympathy for England’s Jonny Bairstow over his controversial dismissal.
“It’s pretty dumb what Jonny Bairstow did,” he said.
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“When the ball goes past you, I would think the first thing you’ve got to do is look at the wicketkeeper.
“Once the wicketkeeper tosses the ball to someone else, whether it be first slip, gully, whoever it is, once he does that the ball is dead and you can walk out of your crease and do your gardening.
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“I understand where Jonny Bairstow is coming from and I applaud what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to live up to the etiquette of the game which is when the bowler is ready to bowl, you’ve got to be ready to face up.
“But you’ve got to do it sensibly and Jonny Bairstow, on that occasion, didn’t do it sensibly, and if you look at Alex Carey there was never any hesitation.
Chappel said Carey didn’t wait to see if his opposite number left the crease before rolling the ball straight at the stumps.
“Would you appeal? Well OK, some players would, some players wouldn’t,” he said.
“But it’s no good calling the Australians cheats for what they did because that is no more cheating than it is running out a guy at the bowler’s end when the batter tries to cheat. He should be Mankaded because he’s the one cheating.”
England’s Stuart Broad said Australian skipper Pat Cummins would regret his decision to follow through with the appeal, a suggestion that was smacked down by Chappell.
“For people to decide what somebody else should be doing — in Stuart Broad’s case it’s even more hypocritical — but you should not be trying to assume what someone else thinks,” he said.
“Let Pat Cummins think whatever he thinks. He didn’t decide to rescind the appeal, that’s his prerogative.
“Australia are too good for England. England have got some major flaws in their team and my experience of England is they don’t rectify problems very quickly, and I don’t think this bunch of selectors are going to rectify the problems England have got.”
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