Curran dodges rap for ‘peasants’ jibe
ENGLAND and Surrey bowler Tom Curran has called Somerset fans ‘peasants’ and Taunton ‘the worst cricket crowd I have ever experienced’.
Curran, elder brother of England’s Sam, made his comments in an incendiary tweet, later deleted, after the Vitality Blast T20 game between Somerset and Surrey last week.
Curran, who played in the last two Ashes Tests last winter, tweeted: ‘ Comfortably the worst crowd I’ve ever experienced today. A complete embarrassment to Somerset CCC and all the players (who played a great game and are very good men). A bunch of peasants setting a terrible example for the many young kids I saw in the crowd today. Such a shame.’
The remark is all the more sensitive because it comes at a time when the ECB are trying to devise a format for their flawed Hundred tournament, due to start in 2020, that will attract a family audience — plus Taunton is a World Cup 2019 venue.
Neither the ECB nor Surrey, who noted he deleted the tweet himself, intend taking action.
Somerset chief executive Andrew Cornish said: ‘Tom Curran is entitled to tweet what he wants. We have a zero tolerance of anti-social or inappropriate behaviour and are still investigating if anything untoward went on that night, so that we can take the right action if necessary.’
NEW global sports broadcast provider Eleven Sports, set up by Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani (right), climaxed their shambolic live coverage of the USPGA — for which they had the UK rights — by shutting down the feed at 12am on Monday to some subscribers, who were forced to log on again. During the hiatus, they missed Brooks Koepka’s winning putt. An Eleven Sports spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of a technical issue which briefly affected a small minority of customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and we are working to ensure these issues do not occur in future.’
MCC member John Roth, 97, is safe in his assumption he is the only person still living to have played cricket with the immortal Sir Jack Hobbs, who played his last Test match in 1930. Roth was a schoolboy when he played in a pre-war charity match at Datchet with Hobbs, who he recalls telling him to rub the bruising when he got hit in the chest by a ball to prevent catching ‘cancer’.
THE MCC charge their members over £550 a year for full membership to watch cricket at Lord’s. But on major match days — which can bring in £2million from ticket sales — they do not pay casual staff the recommended minimum London living wage of £10.20 per hour. Instead the worst paid temporary workers are on £9.20 per hour. An MCC spokeswoman said there are more than 1,000 casual staff employed for matches and it was an ‘aspirational’ aim to pay them the London living wage minimum.