‘Nastiness’: Aussie Alex Carey’s surprising Ashes revelation

Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey has opened up with a surprising response to a prickly question surrounding his infamous Ashes act.

Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey has spoken publicly about the “nastiness” that followed his explosive dismissal of Jonny Bairstow during the Ashes.

Carey famously threw down the stumps when Bairstow left his crease in an incident that has torn the two sporting nations apart.

On the same day Piers Morgan took a swipe at Aussie “miscreants” for laughing about the awkward moments following the dismissal, Carey has revealed he had no concept of the hell he was about to unleash when he took Bairstow’s wicket.

In an interview on Network 10’s The Project, Carey said: “Not at all. When you’re in the moment, you know you’re doing battle against the team.

“You’re trying to take wickets, you’re trying to score runs, you’re trying to get a competitive score.”

He also opened up on the wild scenes that saw Australian players verbally abused as they walked through the famous Long Room at Lord’s.

Alex Carey speaking on The Project.

When asked what he heard, Carey responded: “A lot of booing. And I guess I was a little bit surprised with the nastiness that followed”.

The incident was fiercely-debated around the world but Carey later said he would stump Bairstow again if given the opportunity.

Carey later said: “We got some pretty instant feedback. It‘s one of those things where a stumping that’s given out on field is turned into a massive story. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion and absolutely respect that. And then everyone’s entitled to their opinion on the spirit of cricket as well.”

Earlier in an interview with The Grade Cricketer, Aussie players shared new details of the tense — and at times hilarious — scenes in the Lord’s lunch room.

Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh and Travis Head are among the Aussie players having a good laugh at England’s misfortune in the video.

Usman Khawaja and David Warner fired back at members of the MCC who abused them during the second Test of the recent Ashes series. Picture; Supplied

Labuschagne said Bairstow was “absolutely steaming” and eventually asked the Australians: “Are you guys happy with that?”

David Warner’s reply was “yeah, very”, which hardly did anything to lighten the mood.

Now Morgan has popped up to scold the Aussies for laughing about such a controversial moment.

“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.”

This story features chicken, pumpkin soup, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, and a whole cast of witnesses 😂

Step into the lunch room after Bairstow was stumped at Lord's...@gradecricketer | Seven's men's summer of cricket begins December 14 pic.twitter.com/DzCQk88jvJ

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) August 29, 2023

As reported by Code Sports, it didn’t help tensions inside the dressing rooms that UK broadcaster Sky Sports continued to show the controversial incident on loop so it was beamed into the lunch room for players to watch.

“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.”

Khawaja picks up the story: “All of them had food in front of them, except Jonny Bairstow. I was thinking that’s a little bit off,” he said.

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

“Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and 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.”

Marsh said he was convinced at least “a few” English players were laughing as the drama unfolded.

Khawaja added: “I walked out with a couple of the English boys and they were giggling. He still hasn’t eaten anything. He sat the whole time. I finished up and left and Jonny hadn’t touched anything.”

— Waleed Aly’s full interview with Alex Carey will be available to watch on The Project, Wednesday August 30th from 6.30pm on Network 10 and 10 Play