Lyon claims fans left in tears as England and Australia stars furiously clashed

18 July 2023 , 10:26
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Lyon claims fans left in tears as England and Australia stars furiously clashed
Lyon claims fans left in tears as England and Australia stars furiously clashed

Australia spinner Nathan Lyon has lifted the lid on the fallout of Alex Carey's controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow during the second Ashes Test at Lord's.

Bairstow was stumped by Carey after ducking a bouncer, marking his guard and then walking down the pitch to chat to Ben Stokes, presuming the ball was dead. However, wicketkeeper Carey proceeded to throw down the stumps and Bairstow was given out by the umpires.

England were absolutely furious that Australia did not withdraw their appeal, with the Lord's crowd chanting: "Same old Aussies, always cheating." Both captain Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum said after the game they would not want to win a Test in that manner and that the dismissal was against the spirit of the game.

The controversial incident occurred just 15 minutes before the lunch break and Australia's players were confronted by angry MCC members when they walked through the Long Room, with Lyon claiming an English lady later approached him in tears to apologise for the abuse the Australians were subjected to.

Security was forced to intervene after the furious members confronted the players and three of them have since been suspended. "The emotions in the room were quite remarkable," Lyon said on the Willow Talk Cricket Podcast .

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"Everyone was gobsmacked but found it hilarious because you walk through that Long Room and you're more chance of getting sued than punched. So, you look at it like that and all these guys abusing you, and you're like 'what's going on here?'. It was quite funny in all respects.

"I actually had an older lady come up to me in tears, an English lady in tears from the main members' area, and she said 'I've got to go home. I just want to apologise to you Australian cricketers for the way everyone has reacted inside the Lord's.

Lyon claims fans left in tears as England and Australia stars furiously clashedNathan Lyon has revealed an England fan approached him in tears to apologise for the abuse Australia received after controversially stumping Jonny Bairstow at Lord's (IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)

"I just told her don't worry about it, we're all okay, we're not worried about getting sledged. But it hit home for me that Ashes cricket can affect so many people in different ways and just the actions of people can hit so many different people as well.

"It was a nice moment but an awkward moment with the lady in genuine tears about it all." Lyon, who suffered a calf injury in that Test and was not on the field when the dismissal occurred, revealed there were also some tense moments as the players ate their lunch. At Lord's, both teams share a lunchroom and Lyon said he was forced to try and "calm things down a little bit".

"There were a few Australian guys and a few English guys in the lunchroom and I hobbled up on my crutches and stood in the middle of it and tried to calm things down a little bit," he added. "Jonny had a few words here or there. That's all part of it, I'm all for it."

Matthew Cooper

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