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Piers Morgan blasts Aussie cricket ‘miscreants’ as new Ashes video emerges

Piers Morgan has taken offense to a new video featuring Australia’s Test cricketers with one sight proving too much for him to bare.

Alex Carey opens up on UK crowd abuse

Piers Morgan has sent a fiery message after taking offense to comments made by the Aussie cricket team.

The English TV host on Wednesday morning called the Aussie Test side “miscreants” after seeing video of players, including Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith, laughing about the infamous Jonny Bairstow run out that saw Ashes tensions explode.

In an interview with The Grade Cricketer, Aussie players have shared new details of the tense — and at times hilarious — scenes in the Lord’s lunch room after Carey threw down the stumps when Bairstow left his crease.

Khawaja, 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
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.”

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.

Steve Smith and the Aussie team are able to have a laugh about the whole affair. Photo: Twitter, @7Cricket.
Steve Smith and the Aussie team are able to have a laugh about the whole affair. Photo: Twitter, @7Cricket.

“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.”

The stumping off pace bowler Cameron Green helped Australia seal a fifth-day victory at Lord’s and take a 2-0 lead in the Ashes.

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.”

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/piers-morgan-blasts-aussie-cricket-miscreants-as-new-ashes-video-emerges/news-story/e9209c338f3f4877b5b8fdce886593a2