‘Cheating convicts’: Morgan lashes Australia again
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British broadcaster Piers Morgan has taken a fresh swipe at Pat Cummins and the Australian Test side, describing them as ‘cheating convicts’ who would have lost the Ashes this week were it not for the rain-affected Manchester clash.
The drawn fourth Test was enough for Australia to retain the urn heading to the final match at the Oval, beginning Thursday, but Morgan was adamant the story would have been different had the hosts not been denied by the weather at Old Trafford.
“This was building to one of the all-time great series — forget Ashes — of any cricket series, internationally, in history,” he told the London Telegraph’s Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club Podcast
“To be 2-0 down and then roar back to 2-2 and then go to the Oval, which is exactly what would have happened had we been able to play more than two hours at the weekend … it would have been, really, the greatest comeback in cricket history internationally and the greatest series there’s ever been.
“We should have won at Lord’s, we should have won every Test, let’s be honest. We’re a better team, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We were dudded by the rain, and I think at the Oval we’re going to flatten them. We need to.
“I don’t want to lose 3-1 — to lose 3-1 to this Australian team of cheating convicts would be extremely annoying.”
Morgan was also effusive in his praise of England captain Ben Stokes — but did admit the much-vaunted Bazball style of play could use some modifications.
“When we were at Lord’s, when we gave away all those wickets, when we were 180-odd for 2 and then just fell apart, some of the shots we were playing — Harry Brook’s innings that day was terrible,” Morgan said.
“Yet you can see as the series has gone on he’s got more sensible, more judicious in his shot selection and you could see the world-class player in the making.
“I think they [England] lost their heads a bit at Lord’s, but I totally understood why Ben Stokes is keen to say ‘look, you’ve got to let us do our thing’ because he’s trying to instil in them that constant attacking mentality.
England captain Ben Stokes addresses the media before the fifth Test.Credit: PA
“I absolutely love everything about Ben Stokes. I think he’s got that warrior spirit. When he gets going, the thing about Stokes is he doesn’t go berserk for the sake of it; he doesn’t play crazy shots.
“He’s playing measured, brutal shots but he can take a game away from people like no one I’ve seen. We take him for granted. He is unbelievable. I love the fact that nothing deters him; he doesn’t make apologies.
“There was a great interview — he was asked ‘any regrets about the declaration at Edgbaston’. [He had] One word: ‘no’ — and I agree with him. If he’d nicked off one or two of the Aussies that night it would have been a piece of genius. Yeah, you could say Joe Root might have got another 40 runs — [but] he could have been out next ball doing one of his ramp shots.
“All the what-ifs about that declaration miss the point completely, it was aggressive, bold, surprising — caught the Aussies on the hop — and very nearly paid off.”
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