The Ashes ‘Banter’ Continues as Anthony Albanese Sledges Rishi Sunak at NATO Summit
The Ashes are heating up with players having a go at each other both teams are not ready to give an inch through their aggressive brand of cricket. On one hand, we have the English ‘Bazball’ approach, and on the other hand, we have the traditional Aussie way of hanging in there and not giving up easily.
The result of these contrasting approaches has been a hard-fought series that we have witnessed till now with both teams winning from the barest of margins.
The ‘Controversies’
Ashes and controversies go hand in hand to spice up things a bit and that is what people love about Ashes cricket. That is one of the reasons why people remember certain ashes series apart from the quality of cricket played in the series.
For instance, cricket fans remember the 2005 Ashes series for England’s famous two-run win at Edgbaston along with the quality of cricket played in that series. Many experts and fans regard that series as the best ashes series played on English soil.
The ongoing Ashes series is following the same path with three nail-biting test matches the series might end up being one of the all-time great Ashes series played on English soil. It has been a series of fine margins with teams trying to win important moments in the match and that is what Australia did in the first two tests and England bounced back by winning important moments in the third match.
‘Involvement’ of the leaders
It is rare to see the prime minister of both countries getting involved in banter over a cricket series. But that is what makes Ashes different. Winning Ashes is a matter of pride for every citizen of the countries involved and that was evident when PM of UK and Australia were seen sledding each other at NATO Summit in Vilnius.
The banter started after the second test when Jhonny Bairstow was caught wandering out of his crease on the last ball of the over when Australian wicketkeeper Carry saw the opportunity and stumped him which sparked the ever-going debate of the spirit of cricket as England lost the test match.
The incident provoked the English media and headlines like ‘Same Old Aussies’ were seen at the front page of English newspapers to which the Australian media reacted by depicting Stokes as a 2-year-old baby. PM of both countries backed their teams and were quite vocal about it.
The leaders of Australia and the UK recently met at the NATO Summit in Vilnius where Anthony Albanese was seen taking a dig at his English counterpart when he brought the photo of Bairstow’s controversial dismissal in the second test to which Rishi Sunak reacted by showing the photo England’s winning moment from the third test all in good spirit.
