Watch: Fresh footage of Lord’s fiasco reveals Usman Khawaja facing abuse in the long room

After the infamous verbal spat with MCC lifetime members during the lunch break of Day 5 in the Lord’s Ashes 2023 Test, fresh footage has revealed Usman Khawaja was also subjected to abuse from the members as he stepped on the stairs towards the dressing room. 

Khawaja was treated in the manner unfitting of the esteemed MCC membership by Englishmen, who were clearly dejected over the controversial Jonny Bairstow stumping that his Aussie counterpart Alex Carey inflicted on the final day. 

After initially engaging in an argument with Khawaja and his teammates, the MCC members went to the extent of booing and abusing them when they reached further down the long room near the visiting change room. The Muslim-born Australian opener wasn’t one bit amused by the poor behaviour of the members and made sure he complained about it. 

In a footage doing the rounds on YouTube, the experienced batter is seen pointing to one of the abusive individuals and making the security personnel aware of the misconduct. Later, the MCC was forced to suspend three of the members that were found crossing the line against the players. 

Khawaja faces abuse from MCC members 

In the clip below, Australian players are witnessed to extensive booing and series of abuse for merely stumping Bairstow when he needlessly meandered outside the popping crease after ducking a bouncer against Cameron Green. The right-hander was stumped in one motion by Carey and declared ‘out’ by the TV umpire. But the English camp, including players, commentators and fans weren’t convinced about it. 

The MCC members took an unprecedented route on the matter and abused a touring set of players in the long room, including Khawaja, who was seen complaining to the security guard about one of the individuals present there and throwing cuss words at them. 

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The MCC later apologised to the Australian team after a formal complaint was made by Cricket Australia (CA) and suspended three of its members until the matter is properly investigated. 

Speaking to the press after the Australian win, Khawaja felt the conduct of the members inside the pavilion was highly “disappointing” and perhaps unbecoming of the membership they earned themselves. 

“It was really disappointing. Some of the stuff that was coming out of the members’ mouths was really disappointing. I wasn’t just going to stand by and cop it, so I just talked to a few of them. A few of them were throwing out some pretty big allegations, and I just called them up on it.It was pretty disrespectful to be honest. I was expecting a lot better from the members,” he said.