Usman Khawaja alleges racial abuse by MCC member at Lord's during 2023 Ashes

Former Australia batter Usman Khawaja has alleged he was racially abused by a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) member at Lord's during the Ashes Test in 2023. He makes the claim in his newly released autobiography.

The allegation followed a controversial stumping of England's Jonny Bairstow by Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey in the second Test, and television footage at the time showed Khawaja and David Warner involved in clashes with spectators as Australia walked off for lunch. The MCC subsequently expelled one member and suspended two others after finding they had used "abusive, offensive or inappropriate behaviour or language"; one member received a four-and-a-half-year suspension and another was suspended for 30 months.

Khawaja says he told a man not to shout at him and that this led to a racial insult from another person. "We didn't realise what was waiting for us in the Long Room. Unfortunately, the MCC members in the room that day showed their true colours," he writes. He adds: "All of us always talked so highly of the MCC members, who were usually the kindest, most gentle, cricket-loving members in the world."

In the book Khawaja describes the behaviour becoming abusive and coordinated: "When cricket, and the Lord's cricket ground, needed their civility the most, they turned into a pack of privileged drunks, barking at us from a metre away." He continues, "It was like a pack of dogs about to feast on their next meals. They were in unison, swearing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing."

He recounts someone "shouting, spitting and screaming" in his face and says another member tried to trip him and Warner as they walked up the stairs. "[He was] sticking his leg out, so we'd fall on the steps. Davey told him off first, so I didn't think the bloke would do it again. But as I went to walk upstairs, he tried to do it to me too!" Khawaja writes that at the top of the stairs he saw members awaiting the team near the change-room and that he looked at them, put his arms in the air and said, 'Is this Lord's or the zoo?'

Khawaja also alleges in the autobiography that the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball in the final Test of their 2018 series with South Africa. This claim is presented alongside his account of the Lord's incident in the same book.

The 39-year-old retired from international cricket in January. He scored 6,229 runs in 88 Tests for Australia.