Former Australia batter Usman Khawaja has alleged he was racially abused by a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) member during the Ashes Test at Lord’s in 2023.
The incident came after England’s Jonny Bairstow was controversially stumped by Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey in the second Test, and Khawaja describes the members as like “a pack of dogs” in his newly released autobiography.
Television footage at the time showed Khawaja and David Warner were involved in clashes with spectators as Australia walked off for lunch.
As a result, the MCC expelled one member and suspended two others. They were all found to have used “abusive, offensive or inappropriate behaviour or language”, with one member given a four-and-a-half-year suspension and the other serving 30 months.
But Khawaja goes on to say he told one man not to shout at him again, which resulted in another person racially abusing him.
“We didn’t realise what was waiting for us in the Long Room. Unfortunately, the MCC members in the room that day showed their true colours,” Khawaja said.
“All of us always talked so highly of the MCC members, who were usually the kindest, most gentle, cricket-loving members in the world. You could get a hundred or a duck and they’d clap you as you walked off, all the same. It was a pleasure to be amongst them.
“And it still is, but that day made us think maybe they aren’t so different to the rest. Because when cricket, and the Lord’s cricket ground, needed their civility the most, they turned into a pack of privileged drunks, barking at us from a metre away.
“It was like a pack of dogs about to feast on their next meals. They were in unison, swearing. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
He then describes someone “shouting, spitting and screaming” in his face and that another member tried to trip him and Warner up as they walked up the stairs.
“[He was] sticking his leg out, so we’d fall on the steps. Davey told him off first, so I didn’t think the bloke would do it again.
“But as I went to walk upstairs, he tried to do it to me too!
“At the top of the stairs, I saw a whole bunch of members waiting for us near the change-room. I looked at them with a smile of shock, put my arms in the air, and said, ‘Is this Lord’s or the zoo?'”
In his autobiography, Khawaja also claimed the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball in the final Test of their 2018 series with South Africa.
The 39-year-old retired from international cricket in January, having scored 6,229 runs in 88 Tests for Australia.