By Andrew Wu
As Pat Cummins’ Australians assembled for a group photograph with the Ashes urn at the Oval, the London Telegraph’s chief sports writer Oliver Brown declared: “Moral victory (for England) has never tasted so exquisite.” We imagine the fallout for Australia of losing the Moral Ashes, despite retaining the actual urn...
Captain Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald are fighting to save their jobs as Cricket Australia launch a root and branch review into the state of the men’s game after the national side’s trouncing in the Moral Ashes.
The Australians with various urns, but not the moral one.Credit: AP
Australia’s triumph in the World Test Championship final, and retention of the Ashes on English soil for only the second time since 2001, have failed to ease the anger on these shores at the failure of Cummins’ men to regain the Moral Urn.
The Australians avoided a whitewash with a comprehensive moral victory in the fifth Test when they copped the rough end of a change of ball and survived a referral from Ben Stokes, who had sent a catch upstairs despite knowing he had not completed the catch. Stokes then failed to have the unsuccessful review reinstated.
While the champagne from the replica trophy did not taste as sweet for the English, who could not send off Stuart Broad on a moral high, Australia’s victory in the moral dead rubber will not ease any pressure on Cummins and McDonald.
The pair must convince powerbrokers they remain the right men for the key posts after overseeing a shambolic two-month tour in which the visitors, despite winning two Ashes Tests and the World Test championship, were outplayed in the moral game by Brendon McCullum’s Bazballers. England are on an evangelical crusade to save Test cricket at a time when their board has the format behind a paywall.
Rain saved Australia from a heavy defeat at Old Trafford.Credit: Reuters
Both teams had stages this series where they occupied the high ground, but England were higher for longer and unflinching once they gained the ascendancy.
The seeds for Australia’s moral demise were sown at Edgbaston when Stokes boldly made a sporting declaration with England eight down and star batter Joe Root unbeaten on 118, denying the hosts precious runs in a thrilling game decided by two wickets.
Australia slipped further into the moral mire at Lord’s, accused of contravening the Spirit of Cricket despite abiding by the laws of the game in not reinstating Jonny Bairstow.
Bairstow had been stumped by Alex Carey after leaving his crease before checking if the ball was dead – a dismissal Bairstow himself had executed several years earlier in a 2014 County Championship match.
Captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald.Credit: AP
Not even a hostile reception in the esteemed Long Room from Marylebone Cricket Club members enraged by Australia’s adherence to laws written by their club could swing the Test morally back in the favour of the Australians, who claimed a 2-0 lead in the actual Ashes.
All hope of regaining world cricket’s most cherished moral trophy evaporated at Headingley when Mitch Marsh’s on-field redemption story was trumped by the bromance between Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, who bring each other’s favourite treats when on tour. It also emerged Woakes holds Wood’s hand when the team flies in small aircraft, as a way of easing his friend’s fear of flying.
The visitors sank to a new moral low at Old Trafford when the team, captained by a campaigner against climate change, was spared a heavy defeat by Manchester’s notoriously wet weather, which ensured the actual Ashes remained Australia’s for at least another two years and sparked outrage in the UK.
“We should have won at Lord’s, we should have won every Test, let’s be honest,” British broadcaster Piers Morgan told the London Telegraph’s Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club Podcast.
“We’re a better team, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We were dudded by the rain, and I think at the Oval we’re going to flatten them. We need to.
“I don’t want to lose 3-1 – to lose 3-1 to this Australian team of cheating convicts would be extremely annoying.”
The Moral Urn has not been in Australia’s possession since the 2013 series in England, best remembered for Broad’s refusal to walk after edging a ball to slip in the series-opener at Trent Bridge.
In that series the Australians scored a resounding moral victory at Old Trafford when rain washed out the final two sessions of the match with England reeling at 3-37 chasing 332. England had to be content with the consolation prize of retaining the Ashes.
That 2013 campaign ended in another hefty moral win at the Oval when Michael Clarke boldly declared on the final day of the fifth Test, and England’s players urinated on the pitch in celebrating a third Ashes series win in a row.
Clarke was humble at the pinnacle of his Moral Ashes career, saying Australia had left themselves at the mercy of the rain by going 2-0 down.
Months later in the 2013-14 home summer, Clarke’s Australians were whitewashed, failing to recover from a brutal defeat at the Gabba when Clarke told No.11 James Anderson to “get ready for a broken f---ing arm”.
The real theme of this England tour: A Moral Urn in the hand is worth two trophies in the cabinet.
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.