Cricket Australia probes Moeen ‘Osama’ slur
Wicketkeeper guides side to first Twenty20 title Moeen plays captain’s role in semi and final victories
Cricket Australia is launching an investigation into claims that Moeen Ali was called “Osama” by an unnamed Australian player during the 2015 Ashes.
During the first Test of the series, in Cardiff, Moeen – who shrugged off the controversy by inspiring Worcestershire to victory in the T20 Blast final – says in his new autobiography: “An Australian player had turned to me on the field and said, ‘Take that, Osama’. I could not believe what I had heard.”
For Australia, the allegations add to concerns about the culture of the side, after three players were banned for treating a ball with sandpaper during a Test match in South Africa in March.
“Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and have no place in our sport, or in society,” a Cricket Australia spokesman said. “We have a clear set of values and behaviours that comes with representing our country.
“We take this matter very seriously, and are following up with the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] as a matter of urgency to seek further clarification around the alleged incident.”
The ECB declined to comment.
After the alleged comment, Moeen says in his autobiography: “I remember going really red. I have never been so angry on a cricket field. I told a couple of the guys what the player had said to me and I think Trevor Bayliss [the England coach] must have raised it with Darren Lehmann, the Australians’ coach.” The Australian cricketer subsequently denied making the comment to Moeenand said he had called him a “part-timer” instead. Moeen said that he “did not argue with him” but is “so clear that is what he said. Why should I invent it out of the blue?” Meanwhile, Moeen was superb in Worcestershire’s victory at Edgbaston, taking three for 30 and hitting 41 as he led his side to a five-wicket win over Surrey after seeing off Lancashire in the semi-finals.
After 74 days and 133 matches, and a final which simmered tantalisingly until a late sprint to glory, the 2018 Twenty20 Vitality Blast produced new champions: Worcestershire. They got there through an endearing fusion of home-grown players of uninhibited talents and, in Moeen Ali, an international player’s brilliant return to the domestic game.
In the final there were two compelling stories to choose from: Worcestershire and Sussex, two of the counties whom the Hundred competition forgot – neither have been awarded hosting rights for a team – but who take great pride in nurturing players. Only as Sweet Caroline blared out, once again, at 9.18pm – 10 hours and 18 minutes after this day had begun – to laud Ben Cox’s six did the trajectory of this final really become discernible.
Cox had gone down on one knee against Chris Jordan, one of the finest death bowlers around, and smeared a wide ball over his head: a shot of supreme skill under huge pressure.
Worcestershire still needed 19 from 13 balls. But the denouement was rapid.
Cox’s impudence and precision – a paddle scoop for four off Jordan and a reverse sweep and lofted drive in consecutive balls off Jofra Archer – elicited a decisive mistake from Archer. Realising how small the margins were against Cox, he sprayed a beamer down the leg side for six no-balls. Cox clinically caressed the free hit over square leg for six, so a single delivery had gone for 12 runs. Now only a pull, lashed through square leg for another four, was needed to give Worcestershire their triumph.
So, an extraordinary week ended for Cox. At the start of it, he had been omitted from Worcestershire’s County Championship match against Surrey, when New Road became the venue for Surrey’s title-winning party. At the end of it, Cox – a terrific wicketkeeper whose batting is considered his weaker suit – had, with 55 not out and 46 not out, earned man of the match in both the semi-final and final.
“It’s been a tough week. As a professional you go through emotions and this week I’ve had both low and high. But to put in two performances to help win a trophy for the club – that means the most to me,” an emotional Cox said.
“I knew I’d be able to use the pace and go behind the wicket with ramps … today was my day.”
A few minutes later, Moeen had the great pride of lifting the trophy. For an effervescent young team, the first year of his captaincy has provided the clinical calm that T20, in its highest octane moments, demands.
Even in the bedlam of Cox hitting the winning runs, Moeen simply strolled on to the pitch while his team-mates raced towards the middle.
“I was never going to run on – too much hard work, it had been a long day,” he said. “As a captain, you have to lead the team in all aspects. I gave permission to the boys to run on.”
Moeen’s sheer relish of playing for his county remains clear. He underpinned one of Worcestershire’s most famous days with not so much one fine display as four: 41 and two for 16, including the wicket of Jos Buttler, in the semi-final victory over Lancashire; and then three for 30, including Sussex’s captain Luke Wright, and another 41 at a sprightly pace.
More than Cox, Moeen or even Pat Brown – who took four for 36 from eight outstanding overs during the day, showcasing both the range of variations and temperament that marks out the best death bowlers – this was a testament to Worcestershire’s youth. Academy graduates underpinned this victory. Together with Cox and Brown there was Ed Bernard, who made crucial contributions with bat and ball in the semifinal and Joe Clarke, whose 33 set up the run chase in the final.
“It means a lot,” Moeen said. “It’s more than just as a cricket team, a group of guys – it’s the city, the fans, the players, the people that work at the ground, everybody involved.”
He is the perfect embodiment for a team in which there are “no egos – nothing”.
Worcestershire’s win was an emblem that T20 has established itself as the most democratic of formats in county cricket, one in which counties with less financial muscle most consistently best those with more cash.
Lancashire’s elimination by Worcestershire in the first semi-final ensured that, for the ninth time in 16 seasons, the T20 Blast would be won by one of the counties outside the eight who will host teams in the Hundred. When all was done, it was impossible to argue with Wright’s judgment that “these are two counties doing things the right way”. Sussex themselves, even enfeebled by the loss of Rashid Khan to international duty, showed the virtues that had got them this far, with Wright’s superb 92 setting up a comfortable defence in the semi-final against Somerset.
At 131 for three with five overs to go in the final over, Sussex appeared wellplaced to set Worcestershire 180 – a target that would have made them favourites, given the quality of their attack. But the wiles of Brown, and his baseball-style knuckleball, combined with Moeen and Wayne Parnell, Worcestershire’s lone overseas player to limit Sussex to just 25 from their last five overs.
Against the backdrop of trials for the Hundred, this compelling day was affirmation of the virtues of the T20 Blast, after a season in which a record 931,000 spectators have come to watch games. The Blast is the original T20 competition. If it is not the world’s best in terms of bringing together talent, it retains the ability to create glorious memories. For Worcestershire’s players and fans, this triumph – and the way it was built, through years of diligent youth work – will sustain them through the winter and long beyond.