Australian cricketers have a laugh at England’s ‘moral victory’ in the Ashes

The Australians have responded to the suggestion that the ‘moral victory’ in the 2023 Ashes in fact went to England, despite the 2-2 result.

English fans have been left seething after witnessing Australia’s Test stars sarcastically respond to their “moral thumping” in the 2023 Ashes.

After England batter Harry Brook suggested ahead of the final Test of the series at The Oval that victory (with England trailing 2-1 at the time) would be a “moral victory” for England, the phrase has been used to mock English fans and pundits alike, many of whom remain hung up on Alex Carey’s stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.

Despite the English having spent the majority of the series complaining about a mode of dismissal that they wrote into the Laws of Cricket themselves, the Australians unfortunately now carry the burden of having retained the Ashes while being moral losers.

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Asked by cricket comedy podcast duo The Grade Cricketer (TGC) how they felt about having “lost the Ashes, morally”, the Australians were at pains to describe the impact of the loss.

All-rounder Mitch Marsh spoke of his pain at the moral whitewash.

“Yeah, I think any time you lose an Ashes series 5-0, it’s always tough to take,” Marsh quipped, going on to reference English opener Zak Crawley’s remarks during the series about what a “fair” result looked like.

“Them being the greatest side to ever play Test cricket, 5-0 was probably fair.”

Crawley told press ahead after the drawn fourth Test that “2-2 would be fair”, having at that point lost the ability to win the series.

How does one react to a moral Ashes thumping? 🤔@gradecricketer | Seven's men's summer of cricket begins December 14 pic.twitter.com/DNZFTGiY8i

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) August 31, 2023

Captain Pat Cummins was steadfast in his desire to improve the team’s fortunes on the moral front going forward.

“It was a thumping, morally,” Cummins said.

“Yeah, you can’t come back from it. So yeah, it’s something we’ll work on in the nets, somehow.

“Take some philosophy books or something.”

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc was quick to reflect on recent English sporting victories and how in keeping the 5-0 moral result was with those.

“It’s been a big couple of months for England, hasn’t it,” Starc said.

“Two Ashes series clean sweeps, they won the netball, they’ve just won the FIFA World Cup.”

Of course, England didn’t win any of those sporting contests – Australia retained both the men’s and women’s Ashes, defeated England in the final of the recent Netball World Cup 61-45, and England lost the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup to Spain.

Grade Cricketer host Sam Perry compared the Ashes result and the cultural differences between Australia and England, asking bowler Josh Hazlewood whether the Australian public would similarly celebrate the equivalent result on home soil.

“Do you think there would be the same kind of reception in Australia, if the Australian team drew a series 2-2, even if there was a moral win?”, Perry asked.

“Nah, I don’t think the crowd would hang around at all,” Hazlewood replied.

“I think they’d be out of here.”

Pat Cummins suggested the Aussies might need some light philosophy reading. Photo: Seven, Twitter

Scott Boland said Australians would be furious if they returned a 2-2 result on home soil. Photo: Seven, Twitter

Hazlewood’s pace bowling colleague Scott Boland reinforced the feeling that Australian fans prefer outright successes to moral ones.

“I think we’d get crucified if it was 2-2 at home.”

The clip, done in promotion of the upcoming men’s home summer, which will begin on December 14th in Perth with a three-Test series against Pakistan before two Tests against the West Indies, sparked furore among English fans, with the primary sentiment being that despite having retained the Ashes, Australians were “rattled”.

The England cricket supporters group, the Barmy Army, took to social media to express that they definitely aren’t hung up on failing to win an Ashes on home soil.

“Australians banging on about the moral Ashes forgetting they bottled their first chance to win a series in England since 2001 from 2-0 up and were saved by the rain,” the Barmy Army wrote.

Australians banging on about the moral Ashes forgetting they bottled their first chance to win a series in England since 2001 from 2-0 up and were saved by the rain 🥱

via @Channel7pic.twitter.com/B0FLRlsrbe

— England's Barmy Army 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy) August 31, 2023

The Army then picked out a selection of quotes, alongside which they posted “yawn” emojis.

News Corp’s Jon Tuxworth hit back: “Putting a yawn emoji after you were clearly triggered doesn’t mean you weren’t triggered. So endeth today’s lesson kids.”

“It is ridiculous how rattled they still are,” wrote another fan on social media.

“They were 2-0 up and know the rain saved them (at Old Trafford) from what would have been the greatest collapse in cricket history.

“One of the most dislikable sporting teams ever.”

Sports blogger Charlie Wright wrote: “Has a team ever been this rattled by a 2-2 draw?”

Writer Tommy Gorman had jokes in reply.

“The fact Australia are still banging on about a series that finished a month ago really does show we won the rattled Ashes once and for all,” Gorman wrote.

“Add that to our two moral series victories and I’d say that’s a treble.”

Alex Carey’s run-out of Jonny Bairstow (far right) sparked fury at Lord’s. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

It comes as other promotional videos made by The Grade Cricketer for the upcoming season sparked fury from usually measured cricket analyst Piers Morgan.

After the Australians shared details of the tense – and sometimes hilarious – scenes in the Lord’s dressing room after the now infamous Carey stumping of Jonny Bairstow, Morgan blasted the Australians as “miscreants” on social media.

“If there’s one thing worse than Australia so brazenly abusing the spirit of cricket, it’s seeing the miscreants now chortling away about it,” Morgan wrote on Twitter.

“Stokes should play this video to his team before the next Ashes series. In fact, he should play it to them every day between now and then.”

Batter Marnus Labuschagne said Bairstow was “absolutely steaming”.

“The Sky crew knew that Jonny was in there and they just replayed it on the screen. And as you do, everyone’s watching,” Labuschagne said.

“Obviously seeing us all watch, he’s like ‘are you guys happy with that?’

“Dave Warner’s spitting out his chicken and goes, ‘yeah, very’. The only word said.”

All-rounder Mitch Marsh said he struggled to contain himself.

“Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and you shouldn’t be laughing? Well, I was trying to eat my soup,” Marsh said.

“So if you can imagine, I’m eating my soup and I’m shaking like this and I’m like just trying to look down and then I look up at Jonny and I had pumpkin soup coming down my whites.”