An MCC member got a life ban for abusing the Australians at Lord’s. Now the penalty is under review

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The Marylebone Cricket Club is reconsidering the life ban handed down to one of its members for his part in the ugly scenes in the Lord’s Long Room during the last Ashes series – with the blessing of Usman Khawaja.

In the frenzied moments following Jonny Bairstow’s stumping by Alex Carey on day five of the second Test in 2023, the members’ pavilion witnessed feral scenes as Australian players were roundly abused as they came off the field for lunch.

Australia’s Usman Khawaja confronts an MCC member inside the Long Room.

Khawaja was particularly targeted for abuse and was seen on camera and phone footage pointing out the members who were hostile.

Three members were penalised over the affair. Two were banned for periods of four-and-a-half years and 30 months respectively, and one expelled from the club.

The 30-month ban will expire at the end of this year, and the four-and-a-half-year sanction will be up in 2027, leaving only the life ban as a legacy of the event. Four sources with knowledge of discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to this masthead that the life ban was under review.

While an appeal process was run at the time, the MCC has since appointed a new independent disciplinary panel chair, James Counsell, KC, with the power to take a fresh look at the episode and its penalties.

The MCC declined to comment when contacted by this masthead, and the names of the penalised members have not been disclosed.

Asked by this masthead about the possibility of the life ban being overturned, Khawaja said he believed in forgiveness, so long as the person concerned had learnt a lesson from the affair about how to treat players in the Lord’s Pavilion.

“As long as he’s learnt from it,” Khawaja said. “I’m a big believer in second chances, as long as you learn from your mistakes.

“If these guys have learned from their mistakes and they’re never going to spray players as they’re walking off the field 30cm from their face, that’s fine.

Usman Khawaja outside the Lord’s pavilion after the second Ashes Test in 2023.

“But there needs to be some sort of remorse and understanding shown and that’s for the MCC. I’m all for second chances, I’m not a guy that holds grudges, but I do think you need to learn from your mistakes and avoid doing them again.”

The shared space between members and players in the Lord’s Long Room and stairwells has since been much more tightly regulated, amid fears that international teams would seek to have members removed from the areas during breaks in play.

One of the things that grated most with Khawaja at the time was the sense of entitlement expressed by members he interacted with. “I can say whatever I f---ing want,” one told him.

In the immediate aftermath, Khawaja explained how hurt he was by the affair.

“It was really disappointing,” he said. “A few of them were throwing out some pretty big allegations and I just called them up on it and they kept going, and I was like, well, this is your membership here.

“So I’m just pointing them out. But it’s pretty disrespectful, to be honest. I just expect a lot better from the members.”

There had been anger within the MCC itself about the behaviour of some members, and the events of the day followed hot on the heels of a report that singled out the club as an example of unwelcome elitism within English cricket.

The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report, handed down two days before the start of the 2023 Lord’s Test, stated in part:

“MCC may be a private members’ club, in which some members may resent ‘interference’ with their right to make their own decisions, but it is also a club that benefits from substantial amounts of money from the general public through ticket sales for major matches, with all the accompanying publicity and prestige.”

Jonny Bairstow is stumped by Alex Carey.

The report added that the club’s push to retain certain matches, such as annual fixtures between Oxford and Cambridge Universities and Eton v Harrow schools, were “compounding a view, whether fair or not, that MCC members are out of touch, elitist and unrepresentative of both the wider population and those who play cricket.”

The MCC has a waiting list of about 29 years for full membership of the club, while associate membership – with limited access rights – has a waiting list of about seven to nine years. It has more than 18,000 full members and about 6000 associate members.

Following the ugly scenes in the Long Room during the lunch break, the club’s then chief executive Guy Lavender addressed members and called for improved behaviour. Lavender left the club last year and was replaced by Robert Lawson.

“The Long Room is unique in world cricket and the great privilege of players passing through the pavilion is very special,” Lavender said at the time. “We have unreservedly apologised to the Australian team and will deal with any member who has not maintained the standard we expect through our disciplinary processes.”

The MCC’s then chair, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, went on to say that the members captured on camera had “brought shame on MCC”.

Carnegie-Brown retired as chair in 2024 and was replaced by Mark Nicholas.

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