On July 11, in a meeting during the NATO meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, the prime ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom they had a lot of fun making fun of a story that had nothing to do with NATO. Anthony Albanese presented Rishi Sunak with a sheet marked ‘2-1’. Sunak responded by showing him a photo of a cricket match and Albanese produced another photo, also of cricket. The newspapers of the respective countries gave ample space to the comparison, however incomprehensible in much of the rest of the world.
Every two years The Ashes tournament is held between England and Australia, one of the most important and prestigious cricket events, a sport still very popular in England (but not in the rest of the United Kingdom) and in various countries that belonged to its colonial empire . The 2023 games continue until the end of July, and earlier this month the controversial elimination of an English player sparked a debate involving government leaders, British postcolonial politics and the “spirit of cricket”, a set of behaviors that go beyond the rules and that players should always respect.
The debate arose when an Australian player dismissed Jonny Bairstow, one of England’s strongest batsmen, who was distracted at the time, mistakenly convinced that the action was over and play suspended. In cricket a batsman can be put out, among other things, when the opponents hit the ball at the three sticks behind him, called wicket: having opted not to bat, Bairstow was walking away from his post, but the play was not technically over, and an Australian player hit the wicket in what is called in the jargon stumping.
The action was considered legal by the referees, who had not declared the action over, but it seemed very unfair to the English players and the many fans present. England captain Ben Stokes said if he had been in the opposition’s shoes he would have thought a lot about the “spirit of the game” and would not have wanted to win a match with a pick like that.
The elimination also caused a lot of protests among English fans, who made up the majority of the spectators, given that the match was held in London. Fans chanted chants accusing opponents of cheating, such as “same old aussies, always cheatingi.e. “same old Aussies, they always cheat”.
During a break in play some fans verbally abused the Australian players. The Marylebone Cricket Club, the very prestigious cricket club that manages the stadium where the match was played, to which both players and spectators are affiliated, has suspended three of its members involved in the incident. To avoid further attacks, the organizers of the event have also strengthened the security measures in the grandstand occupied by Australian spectators – mainly family members of the players – in view of subsequent matches.
A day later UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a cricket enthusiast, also spoke out on the matter through a spokesman who agreed with Ben Stokes’ words finding the Australian players’ actions contrary to the “spirit of cricket”. This spirit is a set of ideals on the fair play and on the courtesy of the game that very much characterize the imaginary of cricket, considered by those who follow it as a sport from gentleman, especially in England, where he was born. English fans and players often they also feel they have to guard this spirit, even more so when it seems that the opposing teams do not respect it.
The rivalry between Australia and England is expressed above all in cricket matches: they are among the few countries where the sport is practiced, and therefore they very often face each other in international competitions (Australia and the United Kingdom are two allied nations, with close ties and which collaborate on many other fronts: both countries are constitutional monarchies with the same king, today Charles III). In this context it happens that the old colonial relationships influence the perception of what happens in the field: the first European population to settle in Australia was largely composed of petty criminals sentenced by the English courts to serve their sentences in Australia, between the eighteenth and the 19th century, and had to face at times very difficult conditions on the new continent.
Australians, who in general practice and love sports very much, experience victories on the pitch also as a revenge on the old masters of the colonial period, almost a legitimation of their independence. For their part, the British sometimes consider the Australians as rough players prone to dirty play, incompatible with the refined manners and spirit of cricket.
The greatest expression of this rivalry is the Ashes tournament, so called because after Australia’s first victory on English soil, in 1882, English fans published a satirical obituary lamenting the death of English cricket and « his body cremated and transported to Australia.’
The tournament is therefore played between England and Australia every two years and consists of five matches over several weeks. 72 editions were played, of which 6 ended in draws, 32 won by England and 34 by Australia. Bairstow’s elimination came at the end of the second match of this year’s edition: three have been contested so far, with two won by Australia and one by England.
The day following the second match, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded rather sarcastically to a question from Sky News Australia on relations with Sunak: «Excellent», he said, “we’re making fun of each other”. And he added that Sunak evidently hadn’t been given the same lesson that he and all Australian children are given in primary school: «Stay in your crease». Crease indicates the playing space in the center of the cricket ground, in which the bowler and batsman stand, and the comment alluded both to Bairstow, who was dropped as he was leaving the crease convinced that the action was over, and metaphorically to the fact that Sunak himself should “stay in place”.
On Twitter Albanese also wanted to overturn the hostile chants of the English fans, changing «same old aussies, always cheating» in «same old aussies, always winning», «the usual Australians who always win».
I’m proud of our men’s and women’s cricket teams, who have both won their opening two #Ashes matches against England.
Same old Aussies – always winning!
Australia is right behind @ahealy77, @patcummins30 and their teams and look forward to welcoming them home victorious 👏
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 3, 2023
Taunts between players, but often also insults and verbal abuse, are considered by many to be an integral part of cricket practice, and have a specific name, sledgingwith its own page of Wikipedia. According to some, these are simply friendly jokes, but others consider it an unsportsmanlike practice that should be limited.
On the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Vilnius, the two prime ministers returned to the incident, this time in more friendly: Albanese presented Sunak with a sheet with the provisional result of the tournament (2-1), and Sunak replied with a photo of two English players cheering after a win. Albanese had a photo ready with Bairstow being eliminated, to which Sunak replied by quoting sandpaper, a reference to a major scandal involving Australian cricket in 2018.
And of course we discussed the #Ashes pic.twitter.com/FeKESkb062
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 11, 2023
The main action of cricket takes place in crease when a player throws the ball towards a player of the opposing team equipped with a bat. The batter has to hit the ball, while the players of the other team, that of who threw the ball, run around the rest of the field trying to catch it as fast as possible. While the ball is in the field, the batter and a teammate run around the crease: for each lap completed they earn one point for their team. The batsman may also be out with a ball pitched against the wicketas happened in Bairstow.
Cricket is a particular sport in many ways: its rules are difficult to understand in countries where it is not popular, matches can last up to five days but it has huge fans in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. Thanks to the large number of fans it has in populous countries such as India and Pakistan, it still has significant relevance on a global level: the World Cup, in its main forms of play, is one of the most watched sporting events in the world.
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