Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Bondi Beach heroes receiving standing ovation at Ashes test

Ahmed Al Ahmed, who disarmed one of the shooters in the Bondi Beach attack, along with other first responders and community members, were honoured in a special ceremony before the first day of the final Ashes test in Sydney.

"There was this rolling applause, standing ovations. It was tremendous, it really, it gave you goosebumps," Australian correspondent Murray Olds said.

Olds spoke to Andrew Dickens about the response, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's response to Donald Trump's invasion of Venezuela. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well After Australia Now, Murray Olds, good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Matte God, very good morning to you too.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now, what an emotional day yesterday. I watched the start
of play. I watched the anthems. I watched Akhmed al
Akhmed with his arminus sling and everyone's shaking his hand
very cautiously as well, because the guy is actually injured
and he saw but it was very very moving, Murray.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
It certainly I was bringing to you to a glass eye.
I heard someone say last night. This, of course, was
the start of the fifth and final test of the Ashes,
three weeks to the day since that dreadful, hideous attack
down at Bondai Beach, not very far from the Sydney
Cricket Ground. And as you say, Ahmed Ahmed was perhaps

(01:01):
the star of the show, but there were eight different
branches of the first responders who were also acknowledged and
honored by a capacity crowd nearly fifty thousand people, and
there was this rolling applause, standing ovations. It was tremendous.
It really, it gave you goosebumps. It really gave you

(01:21):
goose bumps. And you know how these things can perhaps
cross the line in the Schmaltz and so on. Not
in this case. I didn't think anyway. Alongside Ahmed el
Ahmed a fourteen year old girl, Chaya Danden. She was
injured at Bondai Beach. Steve Smith shook hands, so did
Usmond Kwaja. He's a Muslim. Of course, his last Test

(01:45):
match for Australia, this will be his swan song and
so it was extremely moving. And then of course we
go into the game itself and for the first time
since eighteen hundred and eighty eight, eighteen eighty eight, you
head around that there's no spinner in the Australian team
for the Sydney Cricket Test. Extraordinary stuff. And the other

(02:07):
fact that merged yesterday. Where do you think in the
world the ground is that's been most affected by rain,
most days lost to bad weather in the world?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Where about do you think say it'll be Sydney because
it's been raining cats and dogs all year.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, you're not far wrong. The ground in the world
where most matches, where most days have been lost to
rain is Manchester, right Manchester and second is Sydney. You're
almost right, second is Sydney. And so we did lose
the last session yesterday a big thunderstorm came in with
lightning and whatnot. Anyway, England very strong at the close

(02:45):
of play on day one, three for two hundred and eleven.
Brooks there on seventy eight doing the bass ball thing.
Joe Root just plays beautifully and these Brooks on seventy
eight route on seventy two they were three for fifty seven.
So this pair has put on the best partnership of
the entire series. And what might have been if they
hadn't been so stupid and perf and throwing away all

(03:07):
those weeks.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know what I found amazing, considering it supposedly a
dead rubber, is that people started queuing at six pm
to get their members stand seats the day beforehand. So
these are members members at the SG so the hoity toity,
they're already members, but to get their seat they went
and stayed all night long waiting to get into the

(03:30):
ground and to get a decent seat. The place was
packed and heaving. It was it was great to see
real Ashes cricket back again.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
That sure was and I mean they're not all hoity toity.
I mean a lot of the members. You'll find people
from the bush. You'll have shearers in there, You'll have
you know, you'll have farmers with vast properties. They come
down Once a year, they come up off the paddocks
and come down with the big smoke and that they'll
be in the pubs afterwards, catching up with mates from

(03:58):
farms on the other side of the country. This one
time a year they get together with the Sydney Test.
And it looks like we're going to get Day three,
which of course is the Jane mcgra Day where they
raise literally raise millions of dollars for breast cancer research.
It really is. It's a huge institution now, the Sydney
Cricket Test.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Great stuff, Murray Olds out of Australia add of Sydney
The Homer Cricket Today.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
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