Anthony Albanese tells Jonny Bairstow and England fans to ‘harden up’ over Ashe scandal
Anthony Albanese tells Jonny Bairstow to ‘toughen up’ over Ash’s stupid scandal and reveals very brutal cricket advice he will give UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
- The Australian Prime Minister spoke out on Wednesday morning
- Will meet Sunak at NATO summit next week
- The Albanian is convinced that tourists have done the right thing at Lord’s
Anthony Albanese has poured oil on the feud between Australia and England after Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping at Lord’s.
The prime minister will meet Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lithuania next week, where he said he expects some talk around the dismissal on the final day of the exciting second test match.
“It’s not surprising that Rishi Sunak is a little disappointed…I’m sure we’ll have some good-natured banter. It’s an important relationship between Australia and the UK,” he told Channel Nine’s Today show on Wednesday morning.
The moment a scandal began: Jonny Bairstow looks back in disbelief as the Aussies celebrate his stumping at Lord’s
England were left stunned after Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey punched Bairstow after going out of his crease at the end of an over, believing the ball to be dead.
The British Prime Minister soon joined the Australian men’s team and supported England captain Ben Stokes’ complaint that the punching was against ‘the spirit of cricket’.
“The Prime Minister agrees with Ben Stokes. He said he just wouldn’t want to win a game like Australia did,” a spokesman for Mr Sunak’s office said.
But the spokesman said Mr Sunak said he was unlikely to discuss the issue with Mr Albanese: “While there will always be a friendly rivalry, I think they will focus on more core issues.”
Albanese said he would give his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak (pictured together in 2022) some light-hearted advice about batters staying in their crease when they meet next week
The Australian Prime Minister (pictured with Pat Cummins) said Bairstow was attempting a similar dismissal to the one that enraged the crowd at Lord’s when he attempted to take the wicket from Marnus Labuschagne.
Albanese joked that he would give Mr. Sunak some advice next week.
‘When I was learning to play cricket, as every Australian does in primary school, the nuns at St Joseph’s Camperdown knew: put your bat in the crease. Stay in your fold. It’s not hard,” he said on Today.
“Jonny Bairstow knew it when he tried to scare away Marnus Labuschagne a few days earlier… Loud!”
But he denied that the controversy would turn into a full-blown diplomatic incident, telling Nine that revoking the visas of Britons living in Australia would be “a very harsh measure.”