5 times English cricket fans were criticized for their behavior

A cricket match without fans is like a body without a soul. It's the loud cheers of fans that motivate the players to put extra effort into a game.

We learned this hard lesson when post-pandemic cricket was played behind closed doors and cricketers openly rued the absence of crowds in the stadiums.

Many times, you would see players like Virat Kohli signaling to the crowd to cheer for them louder to lift the team's morale.

This Ashes also witnessed English cricket lovers supporting their home team full throttle, while also coming up with different slogans and songs to tease and unsettle the Australian players.

The chants of "We saw you cry on TV" for Steve Smith after he didn't score many runs in the first Test didn't go well with the Australian media and fans.

Smith answered the jibe with his bat, scoring a memorable century in the second Test at Lord's.

There are many more instances where English fans have been criticized for their irresponsible or bizarre acts in the past. In this article, we will look into some of them.

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5 times English cricket fans were criticized for their behavior

#5. Violence in the Crowd, 3rd Test, Headingley, 2022

On day four of the third and final Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley in 2022, there were incidents of crowd violence between English fans and New Zealand fans, which by no stretch went well with the cricket community.

A brawl broke out in the Western Terrace late in the day, with footage showing fans throwing punches at each other.

The incident was rightly called upon by the English media, and "Barmy Army" cancelled the membership of people involved in the fight.

#4. Calling the Indian Cricket Team "Greedy," 2022

To the disappointment of billions of cricket lovers around the world, the fifth and final Test in Manchester was cancelled due to a COVID-19 breakout in the Indian camp.

This didn't go well with the England supporters, who felt that the Indian Premier League (IPL) was responsible for the match’s cancellation, and they started calling Indian players greedy on social media.

English fans stated that Indian players didn't want to get injured before the IPL, thus the cancellation of the last match of the series.

Indian fans replied back and reminded them when the English team left Sri Lanka mid-way and returned home. The same thing happened in South Africa when their players panicked and returned home, leading to the cancellation of the three-match ODI series. All this happened when there was not a single positive case inside their camp, and they still cancelled both tours.

#3. Distasteful highjacking of the Wankhede message board, 2016

With India decimating England in the fourth test at Wankhede by an inning and 36 runs, India clinched the five-match series 3-0 with a game to play, and that naturally upset the visiting English fans.

They did not take the loss very well, as in an act of distasteful behavior, they hijacked a fan messaging board to post sick jokes about well-known criminals like Adam Johnson and Josef Fritzl, as well as Madeleine McCann and many others.

They were rightly schooled for this pathetic behavior by cricket pundits across the globe and were called sore losers who can't digest a loss sportingly.

#2. Bairstow's run-out controversy, 2023

Shortly before the Lunch break on the final day of the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord's, England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow was dismissed by a long-range stumping from Alex Carey.

Bairstow, after ducking a slow bouncer from Cameron Green, left his ground in the belief that the ball was declared dead and the over was concluded.

Though Bairstow's dismissal was within the laws of the game, there was widespread feeling around Lord’s that it was not in the "spirit of the game."

The Australian players were booed and jeered from the field.

After reaching the pavilion, there was no respite for them as they walked through the Long Room, an area only for MCC members and their guests. The atmosphere turned ugly.

Security was required to hold members back from physically confronting Australia’s players and staff, and both Usman Khawaja and David Warner had to be pulled away from the scene after pausing to engage in heated, finger-pointing debate.

Former cricketers and experts reminded them of Bairstow himself trying to dismiss Marnus Labuschagne in the same manner on Day 3 of the same Test.

#1. Racial comments hurled at Indian fans, Edgbaston, 2022

Indian fans were subjected to racial abuse by English supporters towards the end of Day 4 of the fifth and final Test match between India and England at Edgbaston in 2022.

A number of allegations were made on social media by the Indian fan group Bharat Army, who claimed that they were called "smelly p**** and curry c***," with several videos in support of their claims.

An investigation was launched into allegations of racist abuse, which later proved to be true.

This was something that was unacceptable by all means, and from former cricketers to media houses, everyone blasted the culprits, condemning them with strong reactions.