Lord’s make changes to avoid repeat of the 2023 Ashes Long Room anarchy during upcoming WTC Final
Australia’s cricketers will be hoping they will not have to endure what they did last time they visited the Home of Cricket and Lord’s have introduced extra measures to ensure they don’t.
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Lord’s members will be forced to give Australian players a wider berth during Wednesday’s World Test Championship Final following the Long Room anarchy which marred the last Ashes.
Australian players have been told the walk-in space between cricketers and members is now wider than it was for the Jonny Bairstow Lord’s Ashes Test of 2023 when the likes of Usman Khawaja and David Warner were abused in extraordinary scenes resulting in the banning of three patrons.
The other change from two years ago is the stairwells which lead up to the dressing rooms are now also kept clear when players are passing through, after it was alleged in the Test documentary that Warner was even “kicked” when he made his way up the stairs for the lunch break.
MCC President Mark Nicholas is convinced there will be no repeat of the embarrassing behaviour from two years ago, notwithstanding the fact he expects the local crowd to rally behind South Africa for a final which is sold out for the first three days.
“No, I think the Australian team will be very well received by MCC Members. I think the Long Room will be hugely respectful and I think the crowd will behave as they would normally to an Australian team,” Nicholas said.
“There will be a mixture of great respect of their cricket and a bit of mickey taking because they win so damn often.
“I think people have put that (2023 Long Room incident) behind them.
“Three members had to pay a heavy price and I know one or two of the Australian players didn’t feel that comfortable about that. But I think it’ll be terrific.
“I’m really looking forward to having them back. I’m obviously a massive fan (of the Australians) myself after the golden years of my life with Channel 9 and I’m just pleased to have them.”
Nicholas confirmed the bollards between players and members had been widened by about a foot, but said those extra security measures are largely irrelevant in any case and it really comes down to the compliance of patrons, which he expects to be exemplary.
“It’s what it is. There’s not much you can do. We put one of those roped off areas but it doesn’t matter. If someone wants to behave badly they will. But I really don’t envisage, frankly I’d go as far as to say I’d be astonished if anybody was out of line,” Nicholas said.
“The basic truth is there is a massive respect and admiration for Australian cricket. But in an absolutely high level of intensity moment during a Test match for the Ashes against England, a few people lost the plot.
“This is a very different setting. It’s the World Test Championship. Australia and South Africa.
“There will be a heavily weighted crowd to South Africa. South Africans have bought a lot of tickets.”
Former Tasmanian cricketer, Jamie Cox, the second highest run-scorer in the history of the Sheffield Shield, was working at Lord’s at the time as its head of cricket operations.
Cox correctly pre-empted the importance of getting down to the Long Room for the lunch break following the emotion-charged first session which included Bairstow’s controversial stumping at the hands of Alex Carey and then England captain Ben Stokes’ revenge hundred in reply.
Now the chief executive of English county Somerset, Cox wonders with the benefit of hindsight whether there was any way the Long Room could have been calmed before the Australian players walked through the door to the most hostile of receptions.
“I did say to (then MCC CEO Guy Lavender) say 10 minutes before lunch, ‘let’s go down to the Long Room. I think we need to be down there for the lunch break,” Cox said.
“The Long Room was deathly silent. Full, but deathly silent. It was uneasy and it just felt strange. I remember (Lavender) whispering to me just before, ‘should I say something?’
“I said, ‘I don’t know.’
“We all saw what happened and it was quite unpleasant and if I’m honest it was unexpected. It took us both by surprise, there’s no doubt. It was poor. It wasn’t acceptable.
“It definitely took the Australians by surprise, you could see by the looks on their faces.
“(Should we have made an announcement before Australia walked in? Hindsight is a great educator. One thing Guy did brilliantly was after the incident and before the players went back out after lunch, he addressed those in the Long Room. He was a very impressive leader and spokesperson in that space and just made it really clear that the behaviour is unacceptable and that if it continues then we’ll jeopardise one of the great entitlements I suppose of Lord’s, where you get so close to the players.
“And you know, funny enough, when the players walked out after lunch, there was a sort of quite hearty applause which again I think took the Australians by surprise.”
Cox agreed with Nicholas that there will not be a repeat in the WTC Final even if English fans are good-naturedly cheering South Africa on.
“I’d be incredibly surprised because I think members of the MCC are just a fantastic bunch of people. They’re a cricket loving bunch in every other experience I’ve had with them who wait a long time to be a member and pay good money to be member so I don’t think they’re going to jeopardise their membership or the rights they enjoy,” Cox said.
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Originally published as Lord’s make changes to avoid repeat of the 2023 Ashes Long Room anarchy during upcoming WTC Final
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