British Prime Minister slams Aussies as Poms demand formal apology

The British Prime Minister has trashed the Australian cricket team as England demands a formal apology for the Jonny Bairstow stumping.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday aimed a verbal bouncer at Australia’s cricketers after the Lord’s Ashes match as Geoff Boycott demanded a formal apology from Pat Cummins.

Jonny Bairstow’s controversial dismissal was not in keeping with the spirit of the game, Sunak’s spokesman told reporters.

“The prime minister agrees with (England captain) Ben Stokes who said he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner that Australia did,” the spokesman said.

But Sunak, a keen cricket fan who watched with Prince William from the Lord’s pavilion on Saturday, also deplored the Long Room abuse directed at the Australians by Marylebone Cricket Club members.

“He thinks it was right that the MCC have taken swift action to suspend any members accused of poor behaviour,” the spokesman said.

Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, looks on during Day Four. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Sunak believed that the standing ovation given by MCC members to Australia’s hobbling spinner Nathan Lyon, as he came out to bat on Saturday, was “much more in keeping with the spirit of the game”.

But Sunak has no intention of lodging an official protest with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to reprise the serious diplomatic strains created by England’s “Bodyline” tactics in the 1932-33 Ashes Down Under.

While there is a “friendly rivalry” over sport between the two leaders, Sunak does not view cricket as a core diplomatic issue, the spokesman remarked.

“The game did provide an opportunity to see Ben Stokes at his best and it was an incredible Test match — he has confidence that England will bounce back at Headingley,” he added, after Stokes hit a blazing 155.

Sunak’s comments came as former England opener Geoff Boycott challenged the Aussies to be “man enough” to say sorry.

If you think what happened yesterday was within the spirit of cricket then you are uninvited to my birthday party and I’m stopping your pocket money.

— Graeme Swann (@Swannyg66) July 3, 2023

“Australia need to have a think about what they did and make a fulsome public apology. That way it will redress the situation and everyone can then move on,” he wrote in the Telegraph.

“Australia have now had time to think about what happened. We all make mistakes in the heat of the moment. People will think better of the Australians if they put their hands up and say ‘we got it wrong’. That is the way to go. Let’s see over the next few days if they are man enough to do that.”

“If you want to win at all costs then cricket should not be for you,” Boycott added. “We want people to play hard and fair but surely there are standards to uphold. When batsmen are not trying to take an advantage then you should not follow the letter of the law. Apply some common sense. If a batsman is trying to pinch some ground, as in a mankad situation, then that is different. But Jonny was not trying to steal a run.”

– with AFP