Earlier than the fifth Ashes Check, Australian and English cricket groups honour responders who rushed to the positioning of the capturing.
Revealed On 4 Jan 2026
England and Australia’s cricket groups, in addition to the group on the Sydney Cricket Floor, have honoured the emergency service personnel and members of the general public who responded throughout a mass shooting at Bondi Seaside in December.
Each groups fashioned an on-field guard of honour, and the spectators joined in with loud applause earlier than the fifth Check match of the Ashes collection, which bought below method on Sunday.
The most important cheer from the sold-out crowd was reserved for hero Ahmed al-Ahmed, who ran in direction of one of many attackers and wrestled the gun from him, strolling out along with his proper arm in a sling.
The 43-year-old fruit store proprietor was filmed tackling and disarming one of many attackers and was extensively hailed as a hero, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese terming al-Ahmed’s actions an instance of “Australians coming collectively”.
Al-Ahmed is an Australian Muslim citizen of Syrian origin, and comes from the village of al-Nayrab, close to Idlib in Syria. He’s understood to have moved to Australia in 2006.
Al-Ahmed was having lunch within the space when the capturing passed off, and he intervened.
Authorities have described the capturing as an anti-Jewish terrorist assault, which passed off on the well-known vacationer spot of Bondi Seaside, not removed from the Sydney Cricket Floor.
Throughout a gathering at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, two males – later identified as father-son duo Sajid and Naveed Akram – opened hearth at Bondi Seaside, killing 15 folks and wounding no less than 42.
Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg known as the assault “a devastating tragedy”.
“The unbelievable acts of bravery by first responders and neighborhood members on the scene of the Bondi assault had been a reminder of the spirit of neighborhood and self-sacrifice that unites us as a nation,” he stated.
“Our ideas stay with these affected by this devastating tragedy, and as a sport, we are going to proceed to offer what help we are able to.”
Amongst these honoured had been ambulance employees and law enforcement officials, surf lifesavers and Jewish neighborhood teams.
A heightened safety operation is in place for the Check, with uniformed and mounted police, together with public order and riot squad officers patrolling the venue.
The measures mirror these for the Boxing Day Check in Melbourne, the place specialist police had been armed with semiautomatic rifles.
