On Day 4 of the first Ashes Test at The Gabba, Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood fell victim to a hilarious prank. The joke on the pacer was made by the popular English fan group called ‘Barmy Army’. For the unversed, this group is a company that offers tickets for some of its members to watch the English cricket team in the United Kingdom (UK) and overseas.
During the match, when Australian players were fielding on the boundary line, they signed a few autographs for fans in between overs. This privilege was given due to relaxed COVID-19 protocols.
Among the crowd, somehow the Barmy Army managed to get Hazlewood’s autograph without the pacer’s knowledge. Following which, they shared the image on Twitter that had a cheeky text in fine print at the bottom. “I Joshua ‘Joshie’ Hazlewood do solemnly swear that I knew it was sandpaper,” read the note on the paper. The group also shared the image along with a caption that said that the Aussie bowler signed this at the boundary and also added that “we knew it”.
Hazlewood was part of the Australian squad who played the infamous Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018. During that match, Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball. This incident led to bans for Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner while Cricket Australia (CA) leadership underwent an overhaul.
However, this year, Bancroft had hinted that the Australian bowlers were aware of the whole planning. Later the bowlers released a statement over it and denied the claim. Amid this issue, Hazlewood has always claimed that he wasn’t involved in the saga.
Coming back to the recent match, Hazelwood took two wickets in the first innings and another on the fourth morning of the game. Australia went on to beat England by nine wickets.
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