Moeen told England to drop ‘Osama’ protest
Spinner reveals racist abuse during 2015 Ashes ‘He did not want it to go any further,’ says Bayliss
Moeen Ali refused to allow his England colleagues to launch a formal complaint against Australia after one of their players allegedly called him “Osama” during an Ashes Test in 2015.
Cricket Australia have launched an investigation after it emerged that Moeen’s autobiography reveals he received racist abuse when playing in an Ashes Test at Cardiff three years ago.
Moeen did not want to take the matter to the match referee according to Trevor Bayliss, the England coach. Instead he was happy for Bayliss to discuss it with Darren Lehmann, then Australia’s coach, and believes it was dealt with internally.
It is unclear if CA were made aware of the incident or how far up the England chain of command the issue went before it was deemed to have been sorted out.
“He didn’t want it to go any further,” Bayliss, who is now back in Sydney, told Australia’s The Daily Telegraph. “He was happy for it [to be dealt with between the teams]. He’s a very softly-spoken sort of a bloke. He doesn’t want to create too many problems for anyone.”
According to Moeen, the player in question claimed he had misheard him. He said he did not say “Take that, Osama” but “Take that, part-timer”.
Bayliss did not hear back from Lehmann and thinks the incident should be left in the past, but CA will be under pressure to investigate it properly in the wake of the ball-tampering affair that has put the spotlight on the culture within Australia cricket.
“Well, I didn’t get a response. I just left it with Darren to sort out one way or the other. I didn’t hear any response, but everything was dealt with then,” said Bayliss. “I’m not going to make too much of it. It was three years ago, let’s move on.
“They [Cricket Australia] can do what they like, I suppose. Everyone has sort of forgotten about it and moved on since then. I don’t see it as any real big deal.
“It was a hard-fought series but no, I thought [relations after that point] were OK.
“You’re not party to what goes on out on the field and certainly nothing else was reported or anything through that series, so we just left it at that.”
There is a code of silence around sledging on the field and it is very rare for players to publicly reveal insults and it is also rare for boards to become involved.
England were angered by nasty abuse during the last Ashes series, with Jonny Bairstow revealing he was targeted by a concerted campaign of sledging but nothing was done about it.
The mood has changed within Australian cricket from turning a blind eye to the behaviour of their Test team to laying down the law after the ball-tampering scandal that ended in 12-month bans for their two most senior players, Steve Smith and David Warner. Lehmann also resigned.
Having initially declined to comment, the England and Wales Cricket Board issued a statement yesterday: “On the day, Moeen Ali spoke to the England management and the matter was addressed with the Australian team. We are aware that Cricket Australia are looking into the incident and the ECB will, clearly, support their enquiries. There should be no place in cricket for such behaviour and language.”