Australia have denied all the rumours about the wicketkeeper Alex Carey not paying £30 to a barber in Leeds for a haircut.
The strange accusation was first stated by the former English captain Alastair Cook during a Test Match Special broadcast earlier this week. He claimed that the barber in question told him about the incident.
“The barber says the Australians had been in,” Cook explained. “He didn’t know his cricket very well, so he was telling me what they looked like.
“He said Marnus [Labuschagne], the funny one. Then David Warner had a haircut, Usman [Khawaja] had a haircut and he says, ‘Oh there’s another one …’
“He says, ‘One of them, I think Alex is his name’. I said, ‘Alex Carey, wicketkeeper?’
“He says, ‘He hasn’t paid’. It was one of those cash-only barbers, and he promised him he would do a transfer later on in the day.”
Cricket Australia (CA) have firmly denied the gibberish rumour stating that the wicketkeeper has not even had a haircut since last month’s World Test Championship (WTC) final against India.
However, Australia also confirmed that one of their players did, indeed, go to the barbershop but there were no issues of payment as he did pay the barber via bank transfer and has a receipt as proof.
The Ashes 2023, which is also already full of controversies including Jonny Bairstow’s runout, Starc’s ground-touching catch and many more, took an odd turn with another controversy.
Earlier, Australia ended day two of the third Ashes Test scoring 116-4 with a 142-run lead at stumps in Leeds.
Lineups for the third Test
England: Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Alex Carey (wk), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland.
Schedule of remaining Ashes matches
Third Test (Clean Slate Headingley) - Thursday, July 6 - Monday, July 10
Fourth Test (Emirates Old Trafford) - Wednesday, July 19 - Sunday, July 23
Fifth Test (The Kia Oval) - Thursday, July 27 - Monday, July 31