While several English papers declared the events surrounded Alex Carey’s stumping of Jonny Bairstow as “just not cricket”, there was a rather different view from across the cricketing world.
MCC members came in for a fair amount of stick after the Long Room confrontation between a group of them and Australian players with the Sydney Morning Herald saying “the final day of the second Ashes Test descended into chaos”.
Andrew Webster wrote: “The first rule of MCC Fight Club is know the rules of cricket.
“I would have thought membership to the most famous club in cricket meant you understood the laws of the game.”
It was a theme continued in The Australia with Gideon Haigh suggesting “puce-faced MCC snobs should learn their own rules”.
Referring to the confrontation with opener Usman Khawaja at the lunch interval, he wrote: “What could be a worse look in the week of the Equity in Cricket report than dim-bulb snobs picking fights with a placid, softly-spoken Muslim player? Chaps, pull yourselves together.”
The paper did find time to concentrate on the cricket, former England captain Mike Atherton saying the one job Ben Stokes cannot manage is to “mask his team’s failings”.
He asked: “Has there ever been an England player whose competitive instincts have shone as brightly as they do from Ben Stokes?”
The Canberra Times said the stumping incident “exposes cricket’s ugliest debate” between spirit and rules.
But there were dissenting voices among the Australia press, the Daily Telegraph saying that “Australia forever taints famous Ashes win”.
Phil Rothfield wrote: “The greatest moments in Australian sport are often not about winning, but great acts of sportsmanship. This Ashes win will be remembered, but not for the right reasons.”
A flash point between Australian batters Usman Khawaja and David Warner and MCC members on July 2 was caught by television cameras as the players walked off for lunch not long after the controversial dismissal of England’s Jonny Bairstow by wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Australia captain Pat Cummins later stated his team experienced “aggressive and abusive” behaviour, which prompted an apology from the MCC and a promise to conduct a full investigation.
It has now been announced the MCC’s disciplinary process has ended and a panel has decided on penalties due to the actions of the three individuals falling “well below the behaviour expected” from members.
One MCC member has been expelled owing to “abusive, offensive or inappropriate behaviour or language”, while another is suspended for four-and-a-half years and the other individual involved in the incident will serve a 30-month suspension.
“Details of the disciplinary process are confidential, and the club will not be publishing the names of the three individuals who have been sanctioned,” an MCC statement read.
“The actions of the three individuals in the pavilion on the day in question fell well below the behaviour expected from our members. The penalties set out above are the consequences of breaching the club’s code of conduct.
“MCC will not be making any further comment on the matter at this time.”
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In the aftermath of the incident, MCC chair Bruce Carnegie-Brown set out a list of new protocols to be implemented immediately.
These include expanding the roped-off area where players walk through as they make their way from the dressing room to the pitch and back again, while members will be prohibited from using the stairwell when the teams are coming on and off the field and must either wait at the ground or top floor level.
Carnegie-Brown also called upon members to police one another’s behaviour, as well as reacquaint themselves with the organisation’s code of conduct.
