‘Harden up’: PM’s blunt message to Poms

Anthony Albanese has poured fuel on the feud between Australia and England after Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping at Lords, revealing he’ll raise the issue with his British counterpart when they meet next week.

The Prime Minister will meet with Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the NATO summit next week in Lithuania, where he said he’s expecting some chat around the dismissal on the final day of the thrilling second test match.

“It is not surprising that Rishi Sunak is a little bit disappointed … I’m sure that we will have good-hearted banter. It is an important relationship between Australia and the UK,” he told Nine on Wednesday morning.

England were left stunned after Australian wicket keeper Alex Carey stumped Bairstow after he wandered out of his crease at the end of an over, believing the ball to be dead.

The British Prime Minister soon joined the pile on of the Australian men’s team and backed England captain Ben Stokes’ complain the stumping had had contravened ‘the spirit of cricket’.

“The Prime Minister agrees with Ben Stokes. He said he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner Australia did,” a spokesman for Mr Sunak’s office said.

But the spokesman said Mr Sunak said he was unlikely to raise the issue with Mr Albanese: “Whilst there’s always going to be a friendly rivalry, I think they will be focused on more core issues.”

On Wednesday morning, Mr Albanese joked he’d be providing a bit of advice to Mr Sunak next week.

“When I was learning to play cricket, as every Australian does at primary school, the nuns at St Joseph Camperdown knew: put your bat in the crease. Stay in your crease. It’s not hard,” he said.

“Jonny Bairstow knew when he tried to run out Marnus Labuschagne just a couple of days earlier … Harden up!”

But he denied the controversy would blow up into a full blown diplomatic incident, telling Nine the revoking the visas of Brits living in Australia would be “a very harsh measure”.