At arm’s length: MCC members pay the price for Lord’s Bairstow fracas

Marylebone Cricket Club members may never again get as close to Australia’s cricketers as they did last year in the Long Room fracas that followed the Jonny Bairstow stumping in the Lord’s Test.

At the time, England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum questioned whether Australia had acted in the spirit of the game when wicketkeeper Alex Carey threw down the stumps as Bairstow walked out of his crease before over was called.

But almost a year on, the MCC’s chief executive Guy Lavender has not only stated his belief that there was no transgression of the spirit of cricket by the Australians during the Ashes Test but also revealed he has taken steps to put greater space between the players and the members in the famed Lord’s Long Room.

The lasting images from day five of the second Test at Lord’s on July 2 last year are mobile phone videos of MCC members chanting “cheat, cheat, cheat” as the players walked through the Long Room and up the stairs to lunch.

There is context. This Australian team were still carrying the spectre of the 2018 sandpapergate scandal, when then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for a year, and England are not going to let them forget.

But despite the furore, Lavender said he believed Australia had acted within the spirit and the law of the game.

It’s almost a year since Jonny Bairstow walked out his crease at Lord’s and was stumped by Alex Carey.Credit: Getty Images

“If a matter is explicitly permitted within the Laws of Cricket, then it really can’t be considered to have been a breach the spirit of cricket,” Lavender said. “Some people get confused about these terms.”

Some MCC members were so confused they made their feelings known to Usman Khawaja and Warner in particular as they walked through the Long Room. One of those members was subsequently expelled from the MCC and two were suspended.

There was humour amid the madness. One member shouting “cowards, cowards” changed his tune when he saw another member stick a leg out to try to trip up Warner as he went up the stairs, chanting instead “too far, too far”.

Awkwardly, the players share the same lunchroom at Lord’s. An angry Bairstow asked the Australians, “Are you guys happy with that?” Warner replied “Yeah, very”, prompting Bairstow to storm out.

Usman Khawaja outside the Lord’s pavilion after the second Ashes Test last year.Credit: Getty

Khawaja said the Lord’s Long Room should be specially policed because of the proximity of the members.

“There was a lot of stuff said that I didn’t agree with, especially around the playing area and the changing rooms and where we walk on and off,” he said. “If there’s anywhere around the world, that has to be one place that’s protected.

“I was getting sprayed left, right and centre at fine leg or deep long on, I was getting absolutely nailed. But that area’s got nothing to do with me. It’s only when they get close to my change rooms where I was like ‘You’re in a privileged position to sit near the players and the change rooms’, so there’s a certain behaviour that should go with that.”

With MCC members now on notice that their place in cricket’s most privileged club is at stake, Lavender believes there will never be a repeat of last year’s unruly scenes, and changes to the Long Room will help ensure that.

Australian players are heckled and abused in the famous Lord’s Long Room.Credit: Nine

When Australia next play there, in a one-day international in September, the area will be much tighter cordoned and access to the stairwells on either side of the pavilion will be closed entirely when the players need to use them.

“There are a couple of operational adjustments,” Lavender told this masthead. “The first one is to widen the walkway between the players and members to create more space, which we thought was sensible, and then close the stairways to members moving up and down as the players exit the changing room and go down to the field of play.

“Looking back a year, it was a moment in time when it’s clear that emotions are running very high during what was an incredible Ashes Test match and the series, more broadly. It was electric,” he said. “My broad view is, I don’t think there’s a likelihood of it happening again.

“Everyone’s reflected on that day. Lord’s is a really unique and special place. And the Long Room and pavilion particularly is a sort of unique and special environment. It’s really enjoyed by the members, and I think by players as well. It’s unique in that regard. And I think everyone understands that that’s really, really important.”

While the International Cricket Council is the game’s governing body, history and tradition have left the MCC as custodians of the game’s laws.

Law 20.1.2 of the MCC’s Laws of Cricket states: “The ball shall be considered to be dead when it is clear to the bowler’s end umpire that the fielding side and both batters at the wicket have ceased to regard it as in play.”

Lavender said the MCC had reviewed the law and found it “fit for purpose”, with no changes required.

After Australia won last year’s Lord’s Test by 43 runs, despite another inspired Stokes century, the England captain invoked the spirit of cricket.

“If the shoe was on the other foot, I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and whether I would want to do something like that,” Stokes said. “For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer is no.”

McCullum said: “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer any time soon” with the Australian team, which also made Cummins laugh given how much McCullum enjoyed a drink during his playing days as a New Zealand great.

The biggest loser was Carey. The torrent of abuse aimed at him extended to death threats and clearly impacted him. Despite his insistence that he was fine, his performances declined and his teammates were worried about him.

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